


Crash Into Me

by OilssssssAndStuff



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-02-03 02:35:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 36,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12739242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OilssssssAndStuff/pseuds/OilssssssAndStuff
Summary: When the president began getting threats regarding his only daughter, he hires Beca Mitchell, ex soldier and close friend, to protect her. Beca never expected the job to be such a difficult task. And she really didn't expect to fall in love with the president's daughter.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey so I totally already posted this story what feels like centuries ago, and stopped writing it for the past two years but have found motivation to try to finish this story. I have 9 chapters already written, and am working on the 10th. I accidentally deleted it from this website, so I'm posting the chapters again one by one every couple days so people can get a refresher on the story because I really wouldn't be surprised if nobody has read it in a long time. I'm also posting the chapters one by one so I can go through and make sure there aren't any typos. I'm hoping to get chapter 10 finished by tonight but that may be wishful thinking because I want to make it long since I've made all my readers wait so long for it, so keep your eye out for it in the next little while! Anyways, for those who have already read chapter one I hope you enjoy it again, and for potential new readers I hope you love this story just as much as others have. You can also follow me on tumblr if you'd like - commanderlexagriffin.tumblr.com
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

_ Kabul, Afghanistan - March 2013 _

I sighed as we hit another pothole while driving towards our destination. I was exhausted because I barely got any sleep the night before and it was hot as hell and all I wanted was to be able to go back to sleep. I knew I couldn't, though, because we had work to do. We had recently gotten hold of an address belonging to al-Qaeda members who used it as a hideout. We had plans to infiltrate the hideout and hopefully capture some al-Qaeda members if we were lucky.

When I say we, I mean all of us in the Special Forces unit. We had spent months with absolutely no leads on al-Qaeda, and now we finally got a lead. Basically, what we do is try to stop terrorists. I've been in Special Forces for seven years. I joined when I was eighteen.

I could feel Bumper Allen staring at me, and it was obviously because he noticed how tense I was. I had a bad feeling about our mission today, and usually my gut instinct was always right.

"You alright, Captain?" He asked. "You look a bit... tense."

"I'm fine, Sergeant," I muttered, trying to shake off the bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I absolutely hated Bumper when he first enlisted. He was an arrogant asshole who thought he was better than everybody, but within the first two weeks of his training, his attitude changed drastically. He was no longer the vain, egotistical child he was when he first enlisted, but now he was a kind and considerate man, and I no longer hated his guts.

"Don't worry, we're almost there," Bumper smiled. "If everything goes according to plan it shouldn't take long."

Just as Bumper finished his sentence the lead vehicle, which was about 150 feet away from the vehicle we were in, exploded and burst into flames. There was another explosion off in the distance and I looked behind me to see the vehicle behind ours being engulfed in flames. Almost immediately, shots were being fired and hitting the side of our vehicle.

"There's been an ambush!" The gunner at the top of the vehicle shouted to all of us.

"No fucking shit!" I shouted back at him. I grabbed my M4 Carbine and looked at Bumper, who was also grabbing his weapon. The shots were hitting the left side of the Humvee, so I pushed Bumper towards the right side of the vehicle. "Everybody get out and take cover wherever you can find it! And somebody call for backup!"

I looked around and noticed there were only a couple of us left. Tom, who was the driver of the Humvee, was next to me leaning against the passenger door of the Humvee as bullets were rapidly shot at us.

"Tom, I need you to get into the car and call for help using the radio," I said. We needed backup and we needed it fast. There were five of us and about twenty of them. I didn't even think we'd make it until backup arrived. "Just keep your head down to avoid shots, and hurry up. I'll cover you."

I noticed a boulder near the front of the Humvee and hid behind it. I looked over the boulder and saw two men close by who weren't paying attention to me. I aimed my M4 Carbine and pulled the trigger. Three bullets hit one of the men in the lower back, his left shoulder, and his neck. I aimed at the other man and pulled the trigger again. A bullet went right through his head and I watched as his lifeless body fell to the ground. After shooting the men, I went back to the Humvee and leaned against the front tire to avoid shots being fired.

"Captain, what do I do?!" The gunner, who went by Unicycle, asked me. I rolled my eyes because this guy was an idiot and I had no idea how he even made it out of basic training.

"Shoot the bastards, what else would you do?!" I shouted back at him.

"There are too many of them!"

"Well try your best! Stop acting like a little bitch and be a part of this team!" I growled. It might have been harsh but we didn't have the time to play games. I looked over to the back end of the vehicle and saw that Bumper and a Corporal, Josh, seemed to be doing a good job at holding off the al-Qaeda members. I looked into the Humvee and saw Tom talking into the radio. "How long will it take for backup to be here?"

"They're sending a helicopter. They should be here in a few minutes."

I heard a grunt of pain and then a body was laying by my feet. I glanced down and saw Unicycle's body at my feet. A bullet hit him from the left side and went right through his neck, causing him to fall off the top of the vehicle and onto the ground.

"Fuck, Unicycle's dead!" I told Bumper and Josh. "How many of them are left?"

"Ten," Josh replied. He hid behind the back tire to reload his weapon. His face was bright red and he was completely out of breath. "How fucking long is it going to take for backup to come?"

"Shouldn't be long, Josh! We've just gotta hold them off for a few minutes longer."

I peaked over the hood of the Humvee and noticed a guy close to me. I shot at him and hit him in the chest twice, but I wasn't quick enough. A bullet hit me in the ribs and sent me flying backwards. As my back hit the ground my gun fell out of my hands and the wind got knocked out of me. Even though the bullet hit my bulletproof vest, it still hurt like a bitch.

As I was gasping for air, I noticed another guy coming at me. I didn't have enough time to reach my gun so I grabbed the knife strapped to my calf and plunged my knife into his Achilles tendon. He screamed out in pain and fell to the ground and his gun slipped out of his hands. I pulled my knife out of his Achilles tendon and stabbed him in the chest. I looked down at the man's face and noticed that he was fairly young, probably about eighteen.

"You okay, Bec?" Tom asked me when he noticed I'd been shot.

"I'll be fine," I said, trying to get the young man's face out of my mind. I pulled the knife out of his chest and strapped it back to my calf and picked up my gun. That's the thing about war, you may be killing the "bad guys" but it isn't easy to kill somebody and it was even harder killing someone so young. Killing people never gets easier no matter how much time goes by. I still have nightmares about it almost every night.

"Shit!" I heard Bumper yell. "Josh is down!"

I looked down and saw Josh's dead body. A bullet hit him directly in the forehead. There were now three of us and seven of them and backup still hadn't showed up yet. If things kept going the way they were, none of us were going to make it.

"Tom, go cover Bumper at the back end. I'll cover over here," I ordered.

I scanned the area around me and noticed that most of the men were focused on the back end of the vehicle, which was Bumper's and Tom's side. I took this as my opportunity to take a few out. I quickly reloaded my weapon and aimed for the two men closest to me and pulled the trigger. I hit one of the guys in the stomach and the chest. The other guy I hit in the right shoulder, the chest, and the neck. As I took those two guys out, Bumper and Tom took out another guy.

I heard a groan and when I looked back Tom was on the ground bleeding from his chest. A bullet managed to miss his bulletproof vest and got lodged in his chest. I ran over to him and covered his wound with my hand. He whimpered in pain as I applied pressure.

"I'm sorry, I know it hurts but you'll die if I don't apply pressure," I apologized. I tried to fight the tears that were threatening to fall, but it was useless. It was hard seeing someone in your unit dying, especially if you were close with them, and Tom and I had a pretty great friendship.

"Becs, do me a favor," Tom muttered. He coughed and winced in pain.

"What do you need?"

"I need you to go back out there and kick their asses," he weakly smiled at me.

I could hear the helicopter in the distance and knew it wouldn't be long until we got out of there. "Bumper, come here and put pressure to his wound and I'll get the last of them."

We switched places and I grabbed my gun. I took cover behind some nearby rocks, giving me a better aim at the three men left. I focused on the man closest to me and pulled the trigger. After taking out that guy I focused on the next guy. He shot at me a few times, but missed every time. I shot him in the left shoulder and three more times in the chest. I then went to shoot the last man, but couldn't find him anywhere.

I heard a shot being fired and turned towards my men just in time to see Bumper's deceased body fall to the ground. While I was focusing on the other two men, the last al-Qaeda member snuck behind the Humvee to attack us. I watched in horror as the man aimed his gun at me with an evil glint in his eyes. I didn't have much time to react when he shot the first bullet, hitting me in my left shoulder. The next shot came quickly and hit me in the chest, missing my bulletproof vest. The last shot fired hit me in the right thigh. I fell to the ground and watched helplessly as the man ran away.

The last thing I remember before darkness overcame me was seeing the bodies of my men lying on the ground and the helicopter that was sent for backup finally arriving.

* * *

 

I woke up in a helicopter, strapped to a gurney. There were several medics surrounding me, but I couldn't focus on who they were. All I could focus on was the sharp pain from where I was shot.

"W-where am I?" I asked the medics surrounding me.

"You're on a helicopter, Captain. We're on our way to the States to get you to a hospital. You've been unconscious for quite some time. We thought we might have lost you," a young man told me. He looked familiar, but I couldn't quite put a name to his face because I was in too much pain to care who he was. I had never been in so much pain in my entire life and it took everything in my power not to scream in agony.

"Where does it hurt, Captain?" Another female medic asked me.

"Are you fucking stupid? Where do you think it fucking hurts?" I growled.

"Glad you didn't lose your charming personality, Captain," she grinned. "We managed to stop the bleeding, but we don't have the proper tools to get the bullets out, so we're going to sedate you so you don't have to be in pain."

"Wait, did Tom make it, or am I the only person who survived?" I asked.

"Tom should be fine. He lost a lot of blood, but he's going to be okay. Your injuries are much more severe than his, so just worry about yourself for now," she replied. "Calm down and rest, it'll do you some good."

I nodded and tried to relax as best I could. The helicopter ride was a bit bumpy and it was difficult to get comfortable, especially with my wounds, but the drugs they pumped into me made it much easier to rest. Within a few minutes I had succumbed to the darkness once more.

* * *

 

The next time I woke up, I was in a hospital and not in as much pain as I was on the helicopter. The lights in the hospital were very bright, and I had to blink several times to get used to them. My throat was dry and I desperately needed a drink.

"Here," a husky voice said and handed me a cup of water. I looked up and saw Colonel Ward. He was an older man with greying hair and green eyes. He was over six feet tall and was pretty muscular for his age.

I drank the cup of water he handed me and instantly felt much better. Ward was watching me closely and it was making me kind of uncomfortable, but I didn't let my discomfort show. Eventually he smiled at me and I didn't feel as awkward.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"I've been better," I replied. My voice was raspy from being asleep for so long. "But I'm better than I was on that helicopter."

"That's good," he said. "You got lucky out there. You and that fellow Tom were the only soldiers who made it. I'm sorry you lost Bumper, I know you two were pretty close."

"I've lost a lot of people I've been close with. I'll get over it eventually." I shrugged and looked down at my hands. "Where am I anyways?"

"You're at a hospital in Washington D.C," he replied. "I understand your father lives here."

"Yeah, he does, but what does my father have to do with anything?" I asked.

"Listen," he sighed. "We've decided to let you go home early. Your tour ends in a week anyways, and with your injuries it'll probably take you longer than that to recover. This is your chance to go out in the world and find a normal job. That's what Sarah always wanted you to do, right?"

"I don't care what Sarah wanted me to do! Yeah, she wanted me to find a normal, safer job, but she was a controlling bitch and we're not even together anymore. Am I being fired?"

Sarah was my ex girlfriend who always tried to control me. She treated me like some kind of trophy and would always brag to her friends that I was in the army. But whenever we were alone she'd always tell me that I needed a normal job and that I needed to move in with her so we could start a family. Before I left for Afghanistan, she told me that if I enlisted again then she'd break up with me, but that didn't stop me from enlisting. I wasn't going to let her make me choose between my job or her.

"No, Beca, you're not being fired," he said. "With your injuries we can't put you on the front line anymore and you'd probably be stuck with a boring desk job doing paperwork. I know that's not what you want. You haven't been happy doing this ever since Shane died anyways, so now you have the opportunity to find a job that you enjoy. I thought you'd be happy to hear this."

I stiffened when he mentioned Shane. Shane was my best friend and we did everything together. We met when we were in basic training and we were in the same unit. Throughout the years we had grown very close and he was like the brother I never had. We were in Iraq when he got shot by a sniper, and ever since he died I didn't allow myself to get close to many people.

"You're right, I'm not happy doing this anymore. It's just the only thing I know. I don't know what else I can offer the world anymore," I muttered.

"Well, you'll have time to think about it. You've got enough money saved up to keep you on your feet for a while, so it's not like you need to rush to find a job." He stood up from his seat and brushed off the dirt on his uniform. "I have to get back to work, but I'll see you later."

"Thanks, Colonel Ward. I'll see you later."

I knocked on the familiar door that I hadn't seen in years. I had all of my belongings with me. I had to get everything I owned out of storage. I had gotten out of the hospital after being stuck there for a week, and now I was hoping I had a place to stay. After about a minute, my father answered the door, and looked shocked to see me.

"Beca, what are you doing here?" He asked.

"Dad, I know that you know what I'm doing here. You’re still on my emergency contact sheet, so I know you got a letter in the mail explaining what happened," I replied. I tried really hard to be nice to my father, but I still held a little animosity towards him ever since he left my mom and I. "Look, I don't want to be here just as much as you don't want me to be here, but I need a place to stay until I can find a place of my own. I was wondering if I could crash here. I promise I won't bug you and Sheila. You won't even know that I'm here."

"Bec, of course you can stay here. When I got the letter in the mail I was so worried about you, I just assumed you'd be staying with Sarah." He wrapped his arms around my neck and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug.

"Dad, can you let go of me? I'm still very sore from the incident," I mumbled into his shoulder. "And Sarah and I aren't together anymore, so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be welcome at her place."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," he replied. "Here, let me help you with your stuff." He took my gym bag off my shoulder and one of my suitcases and brought it inside. I carried the reset of my bags inside and followed him upstairs and into the guest room. He placed my suitcase and gym bag on the bed and turned to face me. "Sheila is getting groceries, but she should be back any minute. I'll leave you here to unpack."

"Thanks, dad. I'll be down in a little while," I said. I unzipped one of my suitcases and started putting my clothes in the closet and the dresser. I put my combat boots and my converse in the closet. After I put my clothes away I set up my DJ equipment. Music was a passion of mine and I had been making mixes since I was about 13.

After I set up all my things I sat on the bed and thought about the last week. I was incredibly lucky that I survived that ambush, but a part of me felt like I didn't deserve to live. Most of my team died that day, but somehow I managed to survive. I didn't usually believe in miracles or fate, but I couldn't help think that fate had something in store for me.

* * *

 

I was sitting at the kitchen table with my father and Sheila. I had been living with them for a little over two months, and I still hadn't found an apartment or a job that interested me. I thought living with my father and Sheila would be a living hell, but they actually weren't so bad. Sheila was an excellent cook and my dad was actually kind of funny, although I'd never admit that to him. It was a nice change living with them than living with Sarah. Sarah had a tendency to be very obnoxious and loud, but my dad and Sheila were pretty quiet and laid back.

"So, Beca, have you found a job yet?" My father asked me.

"Um, no, I haven't. I've been looking, but I'm not really interested in anything that I've found," I replied.

"Have you thought about going to college to get a degree? I'm sure I can get you into Barden," he said. He looked very excited at the thought of me going to school. He had always wanted me to get a degree and get a real job. He wasn't very supportive of me when I first joined the army. Just like Sarah, my father wanted me to get a "normal" job, but eventually he came around to me joining the army.

"I don't really want to go back to school. High school was enough for me. There's no way I'm going to suffer through college."

I knew my dad was going to start arguing with me, but thankfully Sheila cut him off. "Well, I'm sure you'll find a job that interests you. I bet after being involved in so much action in Afghanistan everything doesn't seem as exciting compared to that."

I wouldn't call the action I saw in Afghanistan "exciting" but I wasn't about to argue with her on the topic. I just smiled at her and nodded. My dad was going to say something, probably involving me going back to school, but luckily my cell phone ringing cut him off. I looked down and saw that it was an unknown number.

"Sorry, guys. I'm just going to take this," I said. I stood up from the kitchen table and went into the living room for some privacy. I answered the phone and said, "hello?"

"Beca Mitchell, I haven't heard from you in a while. How are you doing?" The voice on the other end said. The man sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite figure out who it was. They sounded like someone from my childhood, but no matter how hard I thought about it I couldn't put a face to the voice.

"I'm sorry, sir, but who is this?" I asked.

The man on the other end chuckled. "It's Jason Beale," he said. "You do remember me, don't you?"

My eyes widened in shock when I found out it was Jason Beale. I hadn't heard from him since I was a teenager, and I had no idea why he decided to contact me now. Whatever it was about, it must have been important because Jason was a very busy man.

"Of course I remember you," I said. "What can I do for you, Mr. President?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty short, kind of just a filler chapter. Next chapter will be longer and I'll probably post it on friday once i review and finish editing everything. Thanks for reading, hope you all enjoy! :)

I was escorted into the White House by two of the president's Secret Service guards. It took a while for me just to get into the White House because the security was so strict. It was worse than airport security. I couldn't wear anything metal, so I couldn't wear my rings and earrings, and I couldn't have my phone with me, and I couldn't have any objects that could be used as weapons. It was incredibly annoying going through all the security, but I guess it was important to keep the president safe.

"Do either of you know why I'm here?" I asked the guards who were escorting me to the president. My conversation over the phone with Jason Beale was short and pretty vague, and he never told me why he wanted to meet me. He only told me that he wanted to see me so we could "catch up."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Mitchell, but we don't know anything," one of the guards replied. He was kind of geeky and didn't look like somebody who would take up a job protecting the president. He had curly hair and long sideburns and he was a little bit on the shorter side. "We were just told to escort you safely to Mr. Beale's office."

"He also told us not to give you any shit because you could probably kick both our asses with your hands tied behind your back," the other guard grinned. He was a good-looking guy and his attitude was a bit like Shane's. He had dark brown hair and a nice smile. He seemed a bit goofy, but in a charming kind of way. "Although, I didn't expect you to be so short."

"Watch it, man. Don't make jokes about my height," I snapped and scowled at him. He looked scared, like he actually thought he offended me, but then I smirked to let him know I was just kidding around.

"So, you're in the army?" He asked and gestured to the suit I was wearing. It was a dark green jacket with all the medals I earned on it. I also wore matching green pants with some black shoes.

"I was. I recently got let go due to an injury."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." He opened a door that led to the president's office. I saw Jason sitting at a large desk filling out paperwork. "Well, here we are."

Jason looked up from his paperwork and smiled. He stood up from his desk and shook my hand. He still looked the same from when I last saw him when I was about 18. The only thing different was that some of his dirty blonde hair was turning grey, but he still looked a lot younger than 53 years old. He was still very muscular and just as handsome as he was in his younger years.

"Beca! Glad you got here safely. I hope these two didn't give you any trouble on your way here," Jason said, and nodded towards the two guards that brought me to his office.

"No trouble, sir," I said.

"Thank you, Jesse and Benji, for escorting Beca here. Please wait outside the door and don't let anybody in unless it's my family." Once the two left the room, Jason sat down at his desk and I sat in a chair across from him. "So, I bet you're wondering why I asked you to come here."

"Yes, sir."

"Beca, I've known you since you were a baby. You don't have to call me sir."

"Sorry, Jason. It's kind of a habit," I replied.

"It's fine. Anyways, I called you here to offer you a job," he said.

"A job doing what, exactly?" I asked.

"Recently we've received threats that have been targeting Chloe. Not many people know about these threats. Just my family, Jesse and Benji because they're the most trustworthy people I have protecting my family, and now you. I need your help, Beca. I need you to protect Chloe because you're probably more trained than all of the men protecting my family," he explained.

"So you basically want me to be Chloe's bodyguard?"

"Sort of, but I also want you to be the head of my security. You can be completely in charge of everything that goes on with my security."

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. This could be a great opportunity for me, but I was also afraid I wasn't qualified enough for this job. "I don't know, Jason," I muttered. "I don't think I'm cut out for this job."

Jason just smiled at me and didn't say a word. He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a folder. He flipped through some of the pages in the folder until he found what he was looking for. He cleared his throat and said, "When you first joined the army you were given a lot of shit because you were a girl, but you proved everybody wrong by showing them your great leadership skills. That's what I need, Beca. I need a great leader to be in charge of my security. You'll be completely in charge and you can do anything you want to improve my security."

"How did you know I got a lot of shit when I first enlisted?" I asked skeptically, completely ignoring the rest of what he said.

He waved the folder in his hands and said, "this is your file. I know pretty much everything that happened to you in the past seven years. When your mother was dying, I promised her I'd keep an eye out for you to make sure you were okay because she knew your father wasn't going to watch out for you. I couldn't really get in touch with you because you were in Iraq and Afghanistan for most of the time, but I got a hold of your file so I knew what was going on in your life. I know you'll be able to do this job. I have faith in you."

Jason and my mother were best friends ever since they went to college together. I had known Jason my entire life and he was more of a father to me than my actual father. When I was younger my mother and I spent a lot of time at Jason's house, or him and his wife Kate would come to our house for dinner. My mom's friendship with Jason was one of the reasons why my parents got divorced. My dad was jealous and accused my mom of having an affair with him, even though Jason was happily married to Kate. It turns out that my dad was really the one who was having an affair, but he just wanted to put the blame on my mom to make him feel less guilty.

"Okay," I sighed. "I guess I'll take the job."

Just when Jason was about to speak, the door to the office flew open and an angry Chloe Beale walked in. Chloe and I had never been very close when we were younger. She was beautiful and popular and I was awkward and had braces and wore glasses. We were just too different to be friends, but we were friendly to each other when our families got together. I hadn't seen her since I was 16 because she went off to college, and I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't recognize me because I look nothing like I did when I was a teenager. I always remembered her being a cheerful girl, but now she looked like she was about to kill someone, and if I'm being honest I was kind of scared.

"What the hell, dad? Why did I just find out from mom that I'm getting a bodyguard?" She shouted. Her fists were clenched by her sides and her cheeks were flushed. If looks could kill, Jason would've been a bloody mess on the ground. I don't even think she realized that I was in the room because she was more focused on Jason.

"Sweetie, I'm doing this to protect you. These threats are serious and you need someone to protect you if anything goes wrong. I trust Beca to protect you," Jason said calmly.

"I don't need to be protected! I'm not a child! I can take care of myself!"

"I don't want to here another word, Chloe," Jason said sternly. "I want you under 24 hour protection, which means Beca is going to be moving into one of the rooms in your house in case anything goes wrong in the middle of the night. You're going to have a bodyguard whether you like it or not and that is final."

My eyes widened in shock when I found out he wanted me to move into Chloe's house. I would probably be the one who needed a bodyguard because she'd probably try to kill me in my sleep. I kind of wished I could back out now, but I needed a job and this was probably the only job I'd find that interested me.

Chloe huffed and stormed out of the room without another word. I didn't understand why she was so upset with having a bodyguard, but I guess I was going to have to put up with her attitude because we'd be spending a lot of time together. Jason sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He looked stressed, which was understandable because he's the president after all.

"I'm sorry about her. I'm hoping eventually she'll warm up to you, but she doesn't like being followed around by guards all the time, and now she's going to be stuck with one 24/7. Just give her a chance. She's doesn't usually have such a bad attitude," Jason said. He opened a drawer from his desk and pulled out a set of keys and a handgun. He tossed the keys to me and carefully handed me the gun. "Those are the keys to your new car. All of my security gets one, but I got you the nicest one since you're the head of my security now. There's a full tank of gas in it. There's also ammunition in the trunk of your car. Go pack up your stuff, then come back here to pick Chloe up and she'll show you to your new home."

"You seemed pretty confident that I'd accept the job. I mean, you bought me a car and you didn't even know if I'd say yes or not," I smirked. "Which, by the way, I'm totally only taking this job for the car."

Jason chuckled. "One way or another, I would have gotten you to take the job. Now get out of here and get your stuff. You're going to be very busy starting tomorrow."

I grinned and stood up from my seat. I didn't know much, but one thing was certain, being Chloe Beale's body guard sure was going to be interesting.

A few hours later I was pulling up to the White House with all of my belongings in the trunk of my brand new black Escalade ESV. I had never driven in a car this nice before and I felt like a total bad ass driving it. I parked the car in front of the entrance of the White House and got out of the car. Jesse and Benji were already outside with Chloe waiting for me. Chloe didn't look too pleased as I opened the back door for her, but she got in without saying a word and I closed the door.

"I don't think she likes me very much," I muttered.

"Don't worry, she'll get used to you," Benji said. "She doesn't like any of the guards when they first start but eventually she'll start being friendly."

"Great," I mumbled. "I guess I'll see you two around. Have a good night." I got back in the car and looked at Chloe through the rearview mirror. "Where are we heading?"

"58 Prospect Street," she replied.

Neither of us said another word as we drove to her house. It was going to be really interesting living with someone who seemed to hate me. I wasn't going to allow her to disrespect me, though. I don't care if she's the president's daughter, if she's going to be a bitch to me I'm going to be a bitch right back. That's one of the reasons I was so successful in the army, because I didn't take anyone's bullshit.

We pulled up to a huge house that was three times as big as my dad's house, and my dad had a good sized house. I parked in the driveway and got out of the car to get my stuff out of the trunk. I grabbed my laptop bag and the bag that had the rest of my equipment and followed Chloe inside. She immediately led me to my bedroom, which was about twice the size of the room I had at my dad's. There was a walk in closet and plenty of space for my equipment. It also had it's own bathroom, so I wouldn't have to worry about sharing a bathroom with Chloe.

"This is your room. Try not to make a lot of noise. You can use whatever you want in the house as long as you don't make a mess or break anything," she said. "My room is next door if you need me. Try not to need me." She left without another word and closed the door behind her.

I put my bags on my bed and then went out to get the rest of my stuff from the car, which was only a suitcase, two gym bags, the box of ammunition and my gun. When I got back to my room with all of my bags, I slid the box of ammunition under my bed and put my gun in the top drawer of my dresser. I put all my clothes in the closet and my dresser. I placed a framed picture of my mom and I on my bedside table. I was seventeen in the picture and it was taken a few weeks after my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. We were at a family barbecue when somebody took the picture. After putting the picture on the bedside table, I began to set up my equipment.

Once I finished unpacking my stuff, I sat on my bed and sighed. I had a feeling living with Chloe was going to be a living hell.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I know I said I wasn't going to post this chapter until Friday but I have a little bit of free time before the holiday and craziness of Black Friday (because unfortunately I have to work on that chaotic day). Starting from here on out the story is really going to start picking up the pace, so I hope you guys are looking forward to the next several chapters. If I get enough feedback I may be able to even get chapter 4 out tonight, but I'd really like to hear your feedback and where you'd like to see this story head in because maybe I can incorporate that into the following chapters. Again, I have 9 chapters already written from literally 4 years ago, so the writing may not be as spectacular as the up and coming chapters that I'm writing, but I can't really go back and change much because this story is posted on another site and it would be weird of me to change things around on here but not on there. So enough of my rambling, let me know how you guys like it! :)

I woke up to the sound of screaming. I was a bit disoriented as I sat up in bed and rubbed my sleepy eyes. I looked around the room and realized I wasn't in my dad's spare room, I was in Chloe Beale's spare room, and that's when the memories of yesterday came rushing back to me. I was here to protect Chloe for Jason. That was her screaming somewhere in the house. She could be in danger.

I quickly grabbed my gun and ran out of my room in my boy-shorts and black tank top. I wasn't about to take the time to put actual clothes on because the amount of time it took me to do that, Chloe could be getting hurt. My gun was loaded and I ran as fast as I could to the sound of the terrified screams. It sounded like it was coming from the kitchen. I flung the door that lead to the kitchen open and quickly surveyed the room. Chloe was standing on a chair, still shrieking, but nobody was in the room.

"Chloe, what the fuck is going on?" I shouted over her screams. I looked at the clock in the kitchen and noticed it was 5:30 in the morning. What the hell was she doing up so god damn early?

"There's a spider! Kill it!" She shrieked.

My jaw dropped when I realized how ridiculous this girl sounded at the moment. She wasn't being kidnapped or tortured and she wasn't injured at all. She was screaming bloody murder over a spider. I slammed my gun on the counter and walked over to where she was standing on the chair.

"You have got to be kidding me, right? You wake me up by screaming at the top of your lungs, and all there is is a spider? Jesus Christ, I thought you were being killed or something! You can't just do that to me!" I snapped. I grabbed a magazine from the counter and killed the spider that was on the floor. "There! Are you fucking happy now?"

Chloe's face turned as red as her hair and her nostrils were flaring from anger. "You do not speak to me like that, you hear me? I can fire you anytime I want and I can make your life a living hell so nobody will ever hire you again! Do you know who I am? Do you know who you are speaking to right now?" She shouted.

"I know exactly who I am talking to, Ms. Beale. Do not think for a second that just because you're the president’s daughter means I'm going to be nice to you. If you are rude to me, I can be rude right back. I don't think your father will have an issue with that, we are quite close after all." I said with a cocky smirk. I wasn't about to back down just because her dad is the president. She can't just scare me like that over a spider. If something happened to her I would lose my job, and I haven't even been working for Jason for more than 24 hours.

Just as I finished my sentence Chloe's cell phone started ringing. She scowled at me once more before picking up her phone. I could only hear Chloe's side of the conversation, but I could tell from the way she was speaking it was Jason on the other end. The call was very short and when she hung up she put her phone on the table before looking at me.

"That was my dad. We have a meeting we have to be at in an hour. Try to dress nice, I know that's kind of hard for you," she muttered as she glanced down at my attire. I saw a faint blush form on her cheeks and I raised my eyebrow. Was Chloe  _ fucking  _ Beale, the same Chloe who seems to hate me, checking me out? I shook my head at the thought. There was no fucking way that happened.

"Okay, whatever," I replied before leaving the kitchen and going back to my room.

I dug through all my clothes and found a black pantsuit to wear. I threw it on and went to my mirror to put my usual eyeliner on. I was nervous, to say the least, because I didn't know any of these people and somehow they all expected me to be able to protect the goddamn president and his family. I never imagined my life to turn out like  _ this,  _ but apparently life doesn't turn out like you expect it to.

I looked at the scar on my chest that was peeking out of my shirt from when I was shot in Afghanistan. The skin was raised and red and ugly, and I wished my shirt had one more button so I could hide it completely. I had to admit it looked a lot better than it had when I first got out of the hospital. It hurt at times, almost like the bullet was still lodged in my chest, and the memories of practically my whole team dying replayed over and over in my head.

I was lost in my memories when I heard the door open. I spun around quickly to find Chloe looking slightly annoyed in the doorway. She was in a blue plaid dress and she had her hair down in its natural waves.

"Are you ready to go?" She asked with a bit of a bite to her voice. I looked at the clock and realized I had been zoning out for a while, and we had to be at the White House in twenty minutes.

"Uh, y-yeah," I stuttered. I mentally kicked myself for sounding so weak, and hoping Chloe didn't hear the weakness in my tone, but judging from her annoyed expression transforming into a look of concern I assumed she caught onto it. It was then that I noticed my hands were clammy and shaking, and I clenched the fabric of my pants to get them to stop shaking. I cleared my throat and said, "let's go."

We walked to the car and Chloe climbed into the front seat. I silently got into the driver's seat without a word and we began the drive towards the White House. I could feel Chloe's eyes on me the whole ride, and by the time we got halfway there I couldn't take it anymore.

"Why do you keep staring at me?"

"Are you... okay? You looked like you had seen a ghost when I went into your room before."

"Do you actually fucking care?" I snapped at her. I felt a little bad. Here she was, actually trying to be nice to me, and I was being a bitch. I sighed, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped like that. I'll be fine, though."

The rest of the ride was silent. Chloe crossed her arms and looked out the window until we got to the White House. Once there, we had to go through security, and then we were escorted to a conference room. In the room there were a few guards, along with Jesse and Benji who I met yesterday, and Jason and Kate. I hadn't seen Kate in years, but as well as Jason, she still looked incredibly good for her age.

As soon as Chloe and I walked into the room all eyes were on us, and before I knew it I was wrapped in a tight hug by Kate. Being wrapped in Kate's embrace was surprisingly comforting, it almost felt like being in my mother's arms again.

"Beca Mitchell, it's so good to see you," she cried as she pulled back from the embrace. She cupped my face in both of her hands to get a better look at me and I could see tears in her eyes. "You have grown up so much. My goodness, when I heard you were joining the army I was so worried about you. Did you completely lose your mind when you made that decision?"

"It's nice to see you, Kate," I smiled sincerely. Her reaction was probably similar to what my mother's would have been. My mother would have killed me herself before she let me go to get myself killed. "As you can see, I'm okay."

"Okay?!" She practically screeched. "Y-you almost died! Jesus, Beca, it was hard enough with your mother, I couldn't lose you as well."

I smiled sadly at her as I thought back to my mother's funeral. That had been a hard day for everyone, and I felt kind of bad for making Kate worry about me so much.

I was about to speak when I heard Jason clear his throat and ask everyone to be seated. I took a seat between Chloe and Jason, and I could feel Chloe's eyes on me for the second time today. I didn't get to dwell on the thought as Jason stood up and proceeded with the meeting.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for showing up today. I called this meeting because there has been some things happening, and a few changes have been made," he spoke to all of us in the room. "Now, some of you know, but for those of you who do not know, we've been receiving threats targeting my daughter. It may be nothing, but I have taken it upon myself to make some changes around here, just in case these people aren't messing around. So, I've hired a new head of security." He turned to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Everybody, this is Rebeca Mitchell. She is the new head of security as well as Chloe's bodyguard. Beca, why don't you tell everybody a bit about yourself."

I stood up and looked at everyone in the room. It felt weird knowing that I was now every one of these people's boss.

"Hello, everybody," I said. I cleared my throat and tried to think of what to say. I really didn't have much to say about myself. "As you've heard, I'm Beca Mitchell. I was in the army for seven years but recently decided it was time to for me to quit after a bad injury. I look forward to working with all of you."

I was about to sit back down when someone said, "this is fucking bullshit!"

"Excuse me?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at the man who spoke up. He was a pretty big guy, who was probably about six feet tall, and he had short brown hair and brown eyes. He had a little bit of a beard growing as well.

"This is fucking bullshit," he repeated and glared at me. He then focused his attention on Jason. "President Beale, what makes you think this  _ woman _ can protect your daughter? She probably doesn't know a single thing about how to run security."

This guy managed to royally piss me off. I got a lot of shit like this when I first enlisted as well. Just because I was a girl they didn't think I'd be able to shoot a gun or fight someone in combat or take care of myself. That essentially made me work harder to prove them all wrong.

"I'm curious as to what makes  _ you _ think you could do this job better than I can," I barked. I glared at him, daring him to challenge me.

"Well for one I'm stronger than you," he snapped. "And better at combat than you."

"Oh really now?" I chuckled bitterly. "Let me ask you something then, have you ever fucking  _ seen _ me in combat? Because I assure you if you have you might take back what you just said."

"I doubt I would."

"Okay, if you're so tough, why don't we have a good ole fight right here?"

"Oh, Beca," Kate spoke up. "I don't know if that's-"

"Honey," Jason cut her off. "Let Beca do what she needs to do."

"Fine," he replied as he stood up. "Let's go."

I chuckled because this guy literally had no idea what he was getting himself into. I stepped out from my spot at the table to the open space in the center of the large conference room. He followed my lead and walked to the center of the room as well, immediately bringing his fists up to his face to protect himself.

I immediately saw all the flaws in the way he carried himself. For one, he left his entire torso exposed, which I used to my advantage and kicked him in the gut, sending him flying back into the wall. I couldn't keep the smirk off my face as I saw his nostrils flare and the anger in his eyes. He came running at me and used his bulky body to shove me into the wall. He pushed his forearm into my throat, cutting of my supply of oxygen. I brought my knee up and slammed it into his groin. He bent over in pain and I brought my elbow down into his spine, which sent him face down into the ground.

I walked over to him but before I could do anything, he wildly kicked his leg out, connecting with my right thigh, which was still very sore from being shot. I couldn't stop the yelp of pain from escaping my lips. He was up quickly and threw himself at me again, but this time I stopped him with a punch to the nose. I heard something crack, and I knew that I had probably broken his nose. He was back on the ground in seconds, holding his bleeding nose as he yelled out in pain.

I grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him towards me so our faces were mere inches apart. I looked at him with disgust and growled, "I suggest you learn to shut your fucking mouth because your mouth is going to get you a lot worse than a broken nose one of these days. Now leave this room and gather all your things. You have proven that you are not capable of simple combat, which shows you are not capable of protecting the president and his family. You're fired."

"Y-you can't do that!" He shouted.

"Justin," Jason spoke up from his seat at the table. "Do us all a favor and listen to Beca."

The man, who I now knew was Justin, glared at me and spat, "you'll pay for this, bitch."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." I rolled my eyes and pulled him to his feet before pushing him toward the door. I spun around to face the rest of the people in the room. "Anybody else want to take a shot at me?" The room was silent as everybody shook their heads and looked down at their hands. I smirked, "good."

"Well," Jason said as he stood up and smiled at everybody. "Not gonna lie, that meeting took a far different turn than I expected, but now you all know Beca. I expect you all to be respectful and kind because she is your boss now. Now, you all can get back to work."

Everybody cleared out from the room except for Chloe and I. I had to wait for her since I was supposed to be following her around and going wherever she need me to go. I noticed, not for the first time today, that she was staring at me. Her head was tilted slightly to the side as she looked at me from across the room.

"What?"

"I didn't- I didn't even recognize you, Beca," she muttered. "You look so different. I never made the connection in my head that you're Jessica's daughter."

"Well," I sighed. "That'd be me."

"Listen, I know I probably gave you a terrible first impression of me, but I just  _ hate _ having bodyguards follow me around. Most of them are mean and don't talk to me, and I thought you were going to be just like the rest of them, but then I saw you earlier and you looked... scared. And I realized that you're actually a  _ person _ , not this robot that just follows my dad's orders. You have feelings and a story and I guess I just overlooked that and placed you in the same category as everyone else, so I'm sorry for that. Could we be friends?"

"I don't really do the whole  _ friend _ thing," I muttered. "But I accept your apology."

And I realized maybe I was wrong about Chloe as well. Although I wasn't going to be her friend and have slumber parties and paint each other's nails, maybe she wouldn't be as bad as I thought she'd be. I had her pegged as this ignorant girl who threw temper tantrums when she didn't get her way, but I never realized how annoying it must be to have bodyguards by your side constantly and not being able to live a normal life.

Maybe working for Chloe Beale wouldn't be so bad after all.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Thanks for the feedback and sorry for taking a little longer than expected to post this next chapter. This past weekend has been literally insane at work and I feel like I haven’t even had time to breathe. Someone mentioned that they would like a few chapters from Chloe’s POV and I have already planned at least one, possibly more chapters that are going to be in her perspective. That chapter will probably be pretty long once it’s time for me to incorporate it into the story. I love the feedback, it keeps me motivated to keep writing and try to give you guys some content that you would like to see, so if anyone other people have some ideas feel free to throw them my way because I really do try to add those ideas into the story if I think it could lead somewhere. I hope you guys enjoy! Thanks again for reading :)
> 
> p.s sorry if the formatting of this chapter is a lil wonky, i had to post it from my phone because my computer is crap but the mobile formatting doesnt work the same way as the one on the computer.

After the meeting, Chloe informed me that she had plans with her two friends, Aubrey and Stacie, to go shopping. I  _ hate _ shopping, and it's even worse when you're following three girls around who have to go to  _ every  _ store and look through  _ everything _ . I could barely do that, but then matters got worse when Chloe asked me to hold her bags and she gave me puppy dog eyes, which I weirdly couldn't say no to.

I learned a lot about Chloe and her friends from the way they interacted with each other. Aubrey was the uptight blonde who was like the mother of the group. She never wanted to cause trouble and I don't think that girl has ever let her hair down and let herself be free. I was  _ extremely _ surprised to find out that her and Stacie were dating, because Stacie was like the polar opposite of her. The tall brunette was carefree and an absolute thrill-seeker. She seemed like the type who partied a lot in college. And Chloe was somewhere in between the two. The redhead was a bubbly girl who I could tell cared deeply for her friends. She was up for a bit of fun but within reason.

But finally after that three hour long shopping trip and having to stuff a million bags in the trunk of the car, we were driving home. I was going to drop Stacie and Aubrey off and then head back to Chloe's house.

The three girls chatted in the backseat while I focused on our surroundings. There was a suspicious black van that had been following us for a while now, and although I could just be paranoid, I was concerned. Now I had three lives to protect, not just one.

I dug through the glove box to find a piece of paper and a pen, then handed the two things back to Chloe.

"Do me a favor and write this down for me," I ordered. I got a better glance of the license plate in my rear view mirror and repeated it to her.

"What's this for?" She asked. She handed the paper and pen back to me and I placed it on the passenger seat.

"It's nothing," I muttered. There was no reason to get them all worried because it could be nothing. "You ladies are all buckled, correct?"

When they all said yes, I took the opportunity to get away from the van. As the light I was approaching turned yellow, I swerved into the right lane, dodging two lanes of traffic, and took the right turn. If this van was a threat, they'd follow me.

My fears became true when I heard car horns blaring and saw the van cutting through traffic to follow us.

"Shit," I muttered under my breath as I sped up. "Fuck, this isn't happening  _ right now _ ."

"What's going on?" Aubrey piped up from the backseat.

"Um, n-nothing," I lied terribly. I cursed myself for not being able to mask the fear that I had right now.

"It's obviously not nothing. You're pushing ninety miles per hour when the speed limit is forty," she replied.

"Someone's fucking following us, okay? Now can you let me focus?" I growled at the blonde. I hated myself because I should be remaining calm in this situation. If I was alone I would be calm, but now I needed to protect these women and I couldn't be at fault for more people's deaths.

The black van drove up and bumped into the rear end of the car, causing all of us to jerk forward from the force. I pressed the accelerator down to the floor and the car sped up. My new Escalade was in much better shape than that beat up van, so hopefully we could escape without any harm coming to us. I dodged through the traffic, ignoring the cars beeping at me. My focus was to get as far away from this van as possible.

My hopes were dashed when I heard a gunshot in the distance and felt the back left tire pop. "FUCK!" I shouted and slammed my hand against the steering wheel. Whoever these people were, they were not messing around, and Chloe was in serious danger. "Stay down! There will probably be more shots fired where that came from and the last thing I need is one of you guys with a bullet lodged in your body," I said to the girls, who were now crouched down and crying in the backseat, obviously terrified for their lives.

"I know you're scared but just listen to every single order I give and I promise you will be okay," I told them.

The van caught up to us quickly with our now busted tire, and I knew we wouldn't be able to drive much farther. I grabbed my gun and ammunition from the glove box. The van pulled up next to us in the left lane, and the back of the van slid open and a man was pointing a M4 Carbine at our car. He fired off several bullets, one of which busted my window and sent glass flying at me.

I aimed quickly and fired once, hitting him in the shoulder and sending him flying backwards. The next bullet I fired I aimed for the front passenger side tire, successfully hitting it and slowing it down. The man sitting in the passenger seat leaned out of the window and started shooting at us.

"Listen up," I said to the girls. I had a plan, which hopefully would work. "I need one of you to drive this car."

"What are you going to do?" Stacie asked.

"I'm going to need whoever drives to switch seats with me. Then get as close to the side of the van as possible, and I'm going to jump into it. Once I'm in, you're going to drive as fast as fucking possible until you can't see this van anymore. The only way we'll be safe from these men is if they're dead. I'm going to keep you girls safe," I explained the plan to them.

"What?!" Chloe screeched. "That's fucking crazy, Beca! You can't just go into  _ their van _ . You're going to get yourself killed!"

"Yeah, Beca, that's crazy," Stacie agreed.

"Aubrey," I spoke up, ignoring the two girls. I fired a few shots at the passenger of the van, who stopped firing and ducked down. "Get up here. You're the only one who seems like you won't challenge me right now. Keep your head down, okay?"

She did as she was told and we swapped positions, with a bit of difficulty, and I was now in the backseat next to Chloe. I rolled down the window to prepare myself.

"Remember, once I jump, get as far away from here as possible. Call for help and explain the situation. Don't worry about me, and don't you fucking dare think about coming to look for me. Keep your heads down until you're certain you're clear of the van. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes," Aubrey said.

"Okay, now get close up to the van."

She did as she was told and it was an easy jump. I landed on my feet in the back of the van and came face to face with the man who I shot in the shoulder. He was standing up and shouting at the men up front, who were now distracted and took their attention away from Chloe and the girls to look at me, which was perfect because they were able to make a turn down a side street without them noticing.

I quickly kicked his gun out of his hand and shot him in the chest. The man who had been in the passenger seat climbed into the back and tackled me to the ground. He pinned my arms down, but I was able to bring my foot up and push him off of me. I had dropped my gun when he tackled me, but the M4 Carbine was next to me and I quickly grabbed it and fired. The bullets hit him in the stomach, chest and shoulder. He dropped to the ground and I kicked the gun he had across the van.

I went up behind the driver of the car and cut off his oxygen supply using the M4 Carbine. He was struggling to keep the car on the road and break free from my hold.

"Who do you work for?" I growled into his ear. I wasn't going to kill this man because he could have crucial information about who was targeting Chloe. I needed him.

"Fuck you," he spoke with a thick accent.

"I'm gonna ask you one more time," I snapped while pressing the gun down harder on his throat. "Who the fuck do you work for?"

I never got an answer. Suddenly the car veered off the road and we headed straight for a pole. This man was willing to die than to expose who he worked for, and that scared me more than anything because that meant these people were not going to stop terrorizing the redhead.

I braced myself for the crash, releasing my hold on the man and diving onto the floor of the van in the back. I was fine, except for a little whiplash, but the man had gone straight through the windshield. He had not been wearing his seat belt. I got out of the van and walked over to where the man was laying on the ground, his face was unrecognizable from the crash. I placed my fingers against his neck to check his pulse and felt nothing.

"Fuck!" I shouted and kicked a tire of the van. The one potential lead I had to figuring this shit out was gone.

I pulled out my phone and called Jesse. Jason had given me a new iPhone with everybody's contact information in it. Jesse picked up on the third ring.

"Beca? What's going on?" He questioned. "We got a call from Aubrey, Chloe, and Stacie and they were completely freaked out. They said someone was following you guys and you jumped into their van and told them to get help. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," I replied. "Listen, I have three men here, they're all dead, but we need to see if we can get an ID on them and we might be able to link them to a group or something. Where are the girls now?"

"They're safe, Benji and I picked them up and brought them back to the White House. There's a ton of reporters here wanting to talk to you. Where are you?"

"I'm on Taylor Street," I answered once spotting a street sign. "I need someone to get me and I need to talk to the girls."

"That's not far from the White House, I'll come get you," he muttered. I heard chatter in the background. "Oh, and Beca?"

"Yeah?"

"You did good today. I'm glad you're my boss, and I know many other people will think the same after what you did today."

The line went dead and I smiled. I'm glad at least Jesse was on my side.

It took all of five minutes for Jesse to arrive, along with other people to collect the bodies. Hopefully we could get an ID on at least one of them and we'll have a lead. My guess was that it was al-Qaeda, but you never know these days, there's a lot of crazy people out there.

"Let's get out of here, Beca. People are waiting for you at the White House, one of which is a very antsy redhead," Jesse smirked once I got into the passenger seat.

"What's that stupid smirk on your face for?" I chuckled.

"It's just funny how quickly Chloe warmed up to you," he grinned. Before I could respond to that comment, he continued talking. "But anyways, you're probably going to be swarmed by reporters. It's crazy how many there are. I could barely get the girls inside because they all crowded us as we tried to get in."

"Don't they have a little compassion? The girls just went through something traumatic and they can't even give them a moment of peace."

"That's how reporters are. They don't care about anyone as long as they get a good story," he replied.

We arrived at the White House, and I was actually shocked by how many people were there. Jesse had warned me, but I thought he had been exaggerating, but he wasn't. As soon as I exited the car, I was approached. So many questions were being asked at once, I couldn't process anything. I tried to just ignore them and continue into the White House, but they were relentless.

"Beca, can you explain the events which took place today?" I turned to face a tall, brunette who had green eyes. She was smiling softly at me as her camera man was waiting for a response.

"I was driving Ms. Beale home along with her two friends, Ms. Posen and Ms. Conrad, when I noticed someone following us. My job is to protect Ms. Beale, and that's what I did. There's really nothing more to tell."

"But you jumped into that van with the terrorists to protect those girls. How does it feel to be a hero?"

"Look," I sighed. "I don't see myself as a hero. I was just doing my job. If people think that was heroic then okay, but all I was trying to do was my job."

"Beca!" I heard a voice from behind me. I turned to see Chloe, who looked relieved to see me.

She pulled me into a tight hug, which caught me off guard. She pulled back and placed her hands on my shoulders to get a better look at me.

"Jesus, are you hurt? Did they hurt you? You scared the shit out of me. Don't you ever do that again, I was worried sick," she rambled as she looked me over, checking for injuries. Her eyes widened and she gasped, "your arm is bleeding!"

I looked down and noticed for the first time that I had a piece of glass stuck in my arm, probably from when the window was shot. I hadn't felt a thing until now. It was probably because I was running on pure adrenaline.

"We need to get you inside and clean this up."

Chloe grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowd of reporters. After a bit of a struggle, we were in the White House where Stacie and Aubrey were waiting for us.

"Damn, Beca. You're hot shit now. Nobody can shut up about you," Stacie said. "Thanks for saving us."

"Yeah, Beca, thank you," Aubrey smiled. "As much as you need to get rid of those ear monstrosities and wipe that eyeliner off your face, you're not half bad. You saved our lives after all."

"Was that supposed to be a compliment?" I asked with an eyebrow raised. To be honest, I was surprised that Aubrey had complimented me. During the shopping trip she seemed like she hadn't liked me, but I guess I did save her life so maybe that changed her opinion of me.

"I have to take Beca to the bathroom. She's hurt," Chloe piped up as she dragged me past her friends.

She dragged me to the nearest bathroom and sat me down on the toilet as she started to gather supplies. She instructed me to take my shirt off so she could get to the wound, so I did. I unbuttoned the white shirt and slowly pulled it off, trying not to get it caught on the piece of glass. I was now sitting in only my bra. She bent down to get a closer look.

"This might hurt," she warned as she prepared to pull the glass out with the tweezers she had.

"I'll be fine," I said. "I've had worse."

I saw her glance at the scar on my chest and suddenly I felt very self-conscious, but I didn't have time to dwell on it as I felt her pull the piece of glass out of my arm. The glass was bigger than I expected, and I was surprised I hadn't noticed the wound earlier.

"This is going to need stitches."

"Oh no, I'm not going to the hospital for this," I replied. I was not going to go back to a hospital, ever. After the ambush, I couldn't step foot in a hospital without having the memories flood back.

"We don't have to go to the hospital," she smiled. "I can do it. I have the supplies."

"You know how to stitch up a wound?" I asked skeptically.

"Beca, I'm a doctor."

"Oh," I muttered and looked down at my hands. I forgot that Chloe had gone to college to become a doctor.

"I can do it that way you don't have to go to the hospital. I'll make sure it gets taken care of."

She began to stitch my arm up in silence. It had just hit me how tired I was from today's events. It was only midday, but I still felt like I could fall asleep for the night.

"Thank you for saving us today," Chloe spoke up, still focusing on stitching me up. "What you did today was really brave. It was incredibly fucking stupid, but brave."

I smiled at hearing the redhead say "fuck". It was so unlike her. "I'm just glad you're safe," I said honestly.

"You're just about done," she said as she finished the stitching and wrapped my cut in gauze. She stood up and looked at me. "You can put your shirt back on."

I noticed her glance down at my chest and saw a faint blush on her cheeks. This had been the second time in one day I saw her checking me out, and I couldn't help the smirk that appeared on my face. She quickly glanced back up and locked eyes with me.

"Thanks again for today," she mumbled. "I really do appreciate it."

"Anytime, Beale. Anytime."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm on a roll with writing so I'm going to be adding a lot to this story in the next two days, hopefully i'll even be finished with chapter 10 by then as well. Just since somebody asked, if any of you had read this story on fanfiction.net, i will be continuing to update this story on that website as well. I'm just more behind on this website since I accidentally deleted this story so both websites will be getting the entire story. Hope you all enjoy chapter 5! This again is kind of a filler chapter but I'll have chapter 6 out in the next few hours :)

I woke up the next morning from the pain in my arm. Although I have had worse injuries, it still hurt pretty badly even after taking some painkillers. I blindly reached for my glasses on the bedside table and slid the thick, black frames on before rolling out of bed in a pair of black boxer briefs and a white tank top. I stumbled to the bathroom to get some more painkillers, and then I made my way to the kitchen. I stopped in my tracks when I saw who was there.

Sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee and talking to Chloe was Sarah, my crazy ex girlfriend Sarah. Okay, she wasn't crazy, but she was controlling and I wasted so much time on her that I shouldn't have. I could feel anger coursing through my veins and I clenched my fists at my side. I tried taking deep breaths to calm myself down but it was futile. I was livid. She had no right to be here.

Chloe was the first one to see me and she smiled at me, but she frowned upon seeing that I was obviously angry. Sarah also turned to look at me, and her green eyes locked with mine. She looked the same, although her platinum blonde hair had gotten much longer. Her hair was a little above her shoulders when I last saw her, and now it was a few inches past her breasts.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I growled venomously at the blonde. She smirked in response to my tone of voice, which just pissed me off more. When she didn't answer my question, I turned to Chloe and asked slightly less aggressively, "what the fuck is  _ she  _ doing here?"

"S-she, um," the redhead stuttered. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat before continuing, "she said you two were friends, so I didn't think twice about letting her in."

"Beca, sweetie-"

"Don't," I snapped at the blonde. "You can't just walk in my life again and start manipulating people just so you can get what you want. I have a new life now, and I don't want you to be a part of it."

"Baby, I made a mistake," she said in a sickeningly sweet voice that grated on my nerves. She got up from her seat and walked over to me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and pulling me close to her. "I shouldn't have made you choose between your job or me. It was wrong of me to do that, and it took me losing you to realize that. I don't know what I would have done if you had died in Afghanistan. I love you, Beca. We were so good together."

Out of the corner of my eye I watched Chloe leave the kitchen with a frown on her face. I assumed she wanted to give me some privacy with Sarah, even though I wanted nothing more than for the blonde to leave. I focused my attention back on Sarah. I leaned my face close to her so our noses were practically touching.

"Listen up," I said calmly, not letting my anger show. "You don't love me. You love the attention you get from being with me. If you loved me, you would have visited me in the hospital when I came back from Afghanistan and you would have given me this little speech then. The  _ only _ reason why you are here is because you saw my face pop up on the news and realized that I am doing perfectly fine without you, so you wanted to come and ruin that for me. Without me you are nothing. You don't have me as a fancy accessory to tote around with you anymore, so now nobody really cares about you."

I pull back, smirking at the look on her face. Her jaw was dropped and there was a mixture of anger and a little sadness in her eyes. Sarah could never handle people calling her out on her shit, and I was happy I was finally getting all of this off my chest. I pulled away from her embrace and created much needed distance between us.

"And as far as the little ultimatum you gave me before I enlisted again, I would have left you even if you hadn't have made me choose between you and work. That was just the icing on top of the cake. I'm done with you, Sarah. It's over. Now, I suggest you get out of here or I'd be more than willing to call someone to escort you out for refusing to leave Miss Beale's property."

She scowled at me before turning on her heels to gather her stuff. She threw her jacket on and grabbed her bag. She glared at me again and muttered, "you're going to regret leaving me, Beca. You'll come crawling back soon."

"You keep telling yourself that," I muttered. She walked out of the kitchen and I heard the front door slam. I rubbed my temples trying to rid myself of the migraine she caused me.

I decided to look for Chloe. After the anger from seeing Sarah again wore off, I was in shock that Chloe would let a random person she didn't know into her house. Especially after everything that happened yesterday. I looked all over the house, and finally found her in the backyard with her feet dangling in the massive in-ground pool. She had a medical textbook in her lap and her coffee was placed next to her. She looked deep in thought and wasn't actually reading the book. She was intensely staring at the water of the pool.

"Miss Beale," I called out, snapping her out of her thoughts and bringing her back to reality. She turned and looked at me, a frown still adorning her features. "What were you thinking letting someone you don't even know into the house?"

"What?" She asks, surprised.

"You didn't know Sarah. For all you know she could have been someone pretending to be my friend to get to you. You can't take risks like that. It's not safe for you," I explained.

"That's a bit ridiculous, Beca," she huffed indignantly, slamming her book closed and placing it next to her. She stood up from her position by the pool and walked over to me. "I shouldn't have to hide away from everyone!"

"No, you shouldn't. But that's how things are until we figure this shit out."

"Well could you figure it out a little faster, I'm getting really tired of being hunted 24/7," she snapped. I could see anger in her eyes and I realized that she was looking for a fight. All of the progress we made at actually being civil in the last 24 hours could be washed away and we'd be back at square one. But the stubbornness in me could never back away from a fight.

"Why are you blaming the fact that you have a big ass target on your back on me? Last time I checked, I wasn't the one who is trying to kill you! I'm the person who's trying to save your ass," I snarled. "You think I actually  _ enjoy  _ being your guard dog all day? There is nothing I want more than to find out who is behind these threats so I don't have to hear you bitch all day long!"

I knew I needed to bite my tongue soon. I was nearing dangerously close territory to saying something mean that I would probably feel guilty about later. I hated feeling guilty. I felt enough of it regarding Shane's death, and everybody else who died under my watch.

"I know you hate being stuck with me," I mumbled, deciding to put an end to this potential fight. For once I decided to be the bigger person, well, figuratively speaking. "I totally get it, but it's not going to be forever."

I took a step closer to her and placed a comforting (or at least comforting is what I was going for, but it was probably just awkward) hand on her shoulder. She looked up and locked eyes with me, and for a second I was mesmerized by how beautiful her eyes were. I quickly shook my head at the thought. That was very, very dangerous territory that I was not willing to cross. I could not find the woman I worked for attractive. I could not.

"I would hate being in your position also," I continued speaking. "But it's just going to be harder if we are constantly at each other's throats. I'm going to do everything in my power to put an end to all this, but I need you to work with me here. We're kind of in this together. My job is to protect you if anything dangerous comes our way, but I can't have you being reckless either. After yesterday, we can't trust anyone we don't know. Hell, we might not even be able to trust the people that we  _ do _ know. So I need you to do me a favor and not let any strangers into the house."

"I'm sorry," she sighed, looking down at the ground. "You're right. I was being careless and stupid."

"You weren't being stupid, you just aren't used to the situation yet. It'll get easier."

"I hope so," she smiled softly. "I'm going to go make some breakfast. How does french toast sound?"

"Sounds perfect," I grinned, glad that we were able to move on. We walked back into the house and made our way to the kitchen. "Do you want me to help out?"

"No, I'll be fine."

I sat at the table and noticed a magazine in the pile of mail. I pulled it out, and to my surprise, I was on the front page. It was a picture of Chloe and I hugging with a caption insinuating we were a couple. I flipped through the magazine to the page with the article on us. It described in detail the events of what happened, and how I "heroically" risked my life to save the redhead. It then captures our "romantic reunion" and has several pictures of us hugging, Chloe checking me for any injuries, and us holding hands as we made our way into the White House.

"Chloe, have you seen this?" I asked the other woman. She stopped cooking and came up behind me. She silently read the article over my shoulder. "Isn't it ridiculous?"

"Well, I must say," she said, turning back to the stove to continue cooking. "We look pretty hot together."

My jaw dropped and she winked at me before focusing back on making breakfast. Chloe Beale was by far the most confusing person I have ever met.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I lied... I got more ahead than I had expected to so I'm going to be posting all the way up to chapter 10 tonight because I finally finished it and so many of you have been so patient in the process of this story. So, here's chapter 6! More to come shortly! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment and give kudos! Enjoy!

After breakfast, Chloe had to get to the hospital for her shift. We decided that after the events of yesterday, we would take more guards to cover more area at the hospital. I would be with Chloe at all times while a few other guards walked around the hospital to keep their eyes out for any suspicious activity. Yesterday we were lucky, but something worse could happen at any moment and I wasn’t about to be taken by surprise.

We drove towards the hospital with the radio playing softly. We were meeting the two guards at the hospital. One is Luke and the other goes by Fat Amy, which I was incredibly confused about, but when I asked Chloe why she just giggled and said, “so twig bitches like us don’t do it behind her back.” I decided not to ask any more questions after that because I was slightly afraid of the answers I would receive.

“So, Sarah is your girlfriend?” Chloe asked, breaking the silence by bringing up a topic I  _ really _ did not want to discuss.

“She  _ was, _ ” I sighed. “She’s my ex, and she has some crazy notion in her head that we belong together.”

“She said nothing but good things about you when we talked. She was very proud of you.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she did,” I snorted with laughter. “God, that girl is fucked up. She treats me like I’m some kind of trophy when we’re in public, but then belittles everything I’ve ever accomplished in the privacy of our home.”

“Did you love her?” She asked, and the question threw me a little off guard.

Chloe and I weren’t friends in the slightest bit. She’s my boss’ daughter and to be talking of personal matters like this felt weird. We’ve been friendly to each other, but that didn’t make us  _ friends. _ I didn’t even know why I had told her so much about Sarah to begin with. I never trusted people because they always used the information I told them against me, but I knew Chloe wasn’t like that, and maybe that was why I answered the question.

“No,” I mumbled after a few moments of silence. “When we first got together, she was so different. She was nice and caring and funny, and for a moment I thought that she could be it for me. As the months went on she changed, and her true colors came out, and I don’t know why I stayed with her for as long as I did. I mean, I was barely even around because I was in Afghanistan and Iraq for most of the time. During the war and all the stress I was under, I think I just needed somebody, and Sarah was just  _ there _ and even though she wasn’t good company I could always trust her to be there. I know that probably sounds really stupid.”

She doesn’t speak after that, and I bit my lip nervously as we continue to drive to the hospital. I felt incredibly exposed to this woman, and it was a feeling I wasn’t used to.

I pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and parked the car. There were several reporters outside, no doubt looking for us. I shut the car off and leaned into the leather seat, taking a deep breath and trying to regain my composure. Chloe looked over at me and her eyes shined with such a tenderness that it took my breath away.

“I don’t think it was stupid,” she whispered, her softly spoken words cutting through the silence that had settled between us. “I think you went through a lot while away, things that nobody could deal with all by themselves. Sarah wasn’t the best person to be with, and she didn’t understand what you had gone through, but that was probably a good thing for you. You spent years surrounded by people who were so used to being shot at and seeing people die all the time and being a target yourself, and she was normal and she wasn’t a threat to you. She might have been a bit of a bitch, but in your eyes that wasn’t a big deal compared to the people you were constantly surrounded by. It makes sense why you were with her, but now you know that you deserve better.”

I nodded, and took a deep breath to get settled. I couldn't have my mind wandering right now. And I couldn’t stand thinking about my past. There were so many things that I could have done differently, so many things I could have changed. Maybe then, there wouldn’t be so much blood on my hands.

We both got our things and got out of the car and were immediately surrounded by reporters. I made my way over to the other side of the car to block the reporters from Chloe. I grabbed the bag she was carrying and slung it over my shoulder along with my bag. I placed my hand on the small of her back and lead her away from the reporters. There were lots of cameras flashing and I knew that they were trying to get anything they could to write another stupid article of our “romance.” I scowled at all of them and finally made it to the main entrance of the hospital.

When we entered the hospital we were greeted by Luke and Amy. Amy bounded up to Chloe and wrapped her in a hug, lifting her off the ground in the process. Chloe had laughed, her cheeks turned slightly red from the lack of oxygen from Amy squeezing her so tightly, and the corners of her eyes crinkled as she smiled. I bit my lip and turned away when I noticed I was staring. I didn’t understand why Chloe always had a way of bringing these weird reactions out of me. It probably was because I was meant to protect her, so I always kept my eye on her.

Luke hung back slightly, watching the scene unfold. He was tall and muscular, and I hoped he'd be able to do his job well. I hadn't been able to meet all the agents, so I didn't know what skills they had. He didn’t look like a total idiot though, so for that I was grateful. 

"Amy, put me down!" Chloe shrieked happily. I couldn't help but smile at the sight, glad that the redhead's mood was improving from this morning. I still didn’t understand why she got so upset after Sarah showed up at her house.

"Sorry, ginger. It's just been a while," Amy grinned. She then turned and focused her attention on me. "So, Pipsqueak, you're the new boss?"

"Pipsqueak?" I asked incredulously. "Please, call me Beca."

"How 'bout Pintsize?"

"Beca."

“Peewee?”

“ _ Beca. _ ”

"Shawshank?"

"Fine," I groaned, not wanting to waste time arguing with the blonde. I huffed, trying to get my mind back on track. "Anyways, Amy, you'll be patrolling the first and second floors. Luke, you'll be patrolling the third and fourth. I'll be with Chloe. I want updates every half hour."

I dug through my bag and pulled out my earpiece so I could keep in contact with them throughout the day. They each had their own as well. I was nervous for today, and I didn't know why. I had faith that Luke and Amy could do their job properly, but something else was gnawing at the pit of my stomach and it was keeping me on edge. I figured it was just nerves from what happened yesterday.

"Do either of you have any questions for me?" I asked the two blondes.

"I think we're good," Luke replied.

“Okay then,” I said. I turned to Chloe, who had been watching the interaction. “Let’s go, Ms. Beale.”

We walked through the halls of the hospital, leaving Amy and Luke to go to their assumed positions. Chloe greeted a few patients as she passed them in the hallway, and I couldn’t help but watch how she interacted with everyone. She seemed so free while walking in the hospital, like she was doing the one thing she was the most passionate about.

“So how do you know Amy so well?”

“Her and I went to college together,” she grinned. “We were in the same a cappella group together. I was so surprised when I found out that she’d be joining the Secret Service. I haven’t seen her in a while though, she had to take time off to go back to Tasmania for a family thing. Stacie and Aubrey were in our a cappella group, too. Aubrey was my roommate freshman year and then we became inseparable.”

“A cappella?” I asked, my eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “That’s like, a thing? Sounds pretty lame to me.”

Chloe gasped and playfully slapped my arm. I smirked at her and she let out a quiet chuckle.

“You’re a jerk,” she giggled, bumping her hip into mine as we walked. “If we had gone to college together, I totally would have recruited you to join the Bellas. I see through your little badass persona, you totally would have joined.”

“Maybe in another lifetime you’ll get the chance,” I chuckled. I liked this side of Chloe, which I was starting to see more and more. It was the side where she could talk and laugh with me and be friendly. It was almost as though I could forget that I’m supposed to be protecting her from a group of terrorists out to kill her.

However, our conversation was put to an end due to Chloe being whisked off to a patient’s room. As I watched her work, she was still extremely kind and caring. I noticed that all of her patients were extremely comfortable with her, and she also knew what she was doing. She was easily able to diagnose patients and get them the help that they needed. I often stayed in the corner of the room, not making a sound unless spoken to, so I did not disturb anyone.

Chloe’s long twelve hour shift went well. Luke and Amy checked in every thirty minutes like they were told to. Amy often greeted me over the earpiece with silly nicknames that I would chastise her for, but they would always make me smile. However, I never planned on telling her that. The nervous butterflies in my gut subsided when Chloe had told me she was ready to head out. I was filled with relief when the shift was over and nothing had gone wrong, finally releasing the tension in my shoulders.

I knew it was too good to be true, though. My gut was always right. We were in the stairwell making our way towards the first floor. And the horrible feeling I had all day came back almost the second it went away when I heard a loud bang, sounding exactly like a gunshot.

“B-Beca?” Amy’s breathless voice came over the staticky earpiece. My stomach dropped, immediately knowing there was a problem. Amy hadn’t called me by my first name all day, it was always a random nickname, and now her voice was trembling and she sounded  _ terrified.  _ “Beca, there’s— there’s a shooter on the second floor. They shot the nurse at the front desk. She’s dead.”

Chloe was looking at me with wide, pleading eyes, begging me to tell her good news. I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat, knowing that what she needed I couldn’t give her. She already felt enough pain knowing that there were people out to kill her, but now an innocent person was  _ dead _ and I knew she was going to blame herself for it. 

I sucked in a deep, shaky breath of air. I needed to be strong, and I needed to get Chloe to safety and make sure there were as little casualties as possible. I couldn’t let anyone else die on my watch.

“Amy, I’m going to call Jesse and get backup here right away,” I said. I turned to Chloe, seeing tears already forming in her eyes before I could even tell her what was happening. She already knew. “Chloe, I’m not letting anything happen to you, do you understand?”

When she nodded, I pulled out my phone to call Jesse, surprised that I actually had signal in the stairwell. I tapped my fingers anxiously against my leg, waiting for him to pick up the phone.

“Beca? What’s going on?” He questioned once he finally picked up the phone.

“There’s a shooter in the hospital. I need backup immediately,” I explained quickly. I couldn’t waste time. “What do I do with everybody? I can’t evacuate because I don’t know if there are more people outside, but I can’t just keep them sitting there waiting to die.”

“Have them lock themselves in rooms and barricade the doors. That’s the only thing you can really do, it’s the safest option,” he said. “I already have backup on their way. Do you know how many shooters there are?”

“I have no idea. We only have eyes on one right now, but fuck, Jesse, there could be more and they could be anyone.”

“Everything will be okay, Beca. Just… stay safe. I will be there as soon as I can.”

With that, he hung up the phone. I slid it back in my pocket before running my hands through my hair. I needed to get Chloe to safety.

“Luke, Amy,” I called out into the earpiece. “I need you to get as many people into rooms as you can. Have them barricade the doors and shut the lights off. It’s the best we can do for them right now. And keep your fucking eyes out for anybody who might have a gun. We have no idea who else could be a part of this. Kill them if you have no other choice. We can’t lose anymore innocent lives. Not on my watch.”

I got confirmation from both of them that they would start moving people to safety, and I turned to Chloe, grabbing her hand and giving it a squeeze. Her hands were shaking and she was on the verge of hyperventilating. Tears were forming in her eyes and I knew she was about to have a panic attack.

“Chloe, listen to me,” I whispered. I needed to calm her down and let her know that I wasn’t going to let any harm come to her. “Everything is going to be okay. Nothing is going to happen to you. I need you to take a deep breath.”

She was still breathing erratically, tears now freely falling down her cheeks. I pulled her closer to me, placing her hand over my heart. I placed my free hand on the side of her face and pulled her close to me.

“Look at me, Chloe,” I said firmly. “Look into my eyes and feel my heart beating beneath your hand. Breathe with me and try to slow your heart rate down to the way mine is.”

I helped her through the motions of taking deep breaths, and soon her breathing returned to normal. Our faces were still mere inches away from each other, our hands were no longer placed over my heart, but they were still intertwined at our sides. I took that moment to look at her, really  _ look _ at her. I focused on the way her lips were twisted downwards, forming a frown on her face that just didn’t suit her. After watching how happy she was with her patients today, seeing her this upset made my stomach churn uncomfortably. Then I looked into her glistening eyes that were holding back tears. Even though I’ve never seen the ocean in person and don’t know exactly what it looks like, I pictured the color to be similar to her eyes. I could see the trust reflected in her eyes, and I realized that she trusted me completely. She knew that I wasn’t going to let anything happen to her. The last thing I focused on was the scar on her forehead. It was unlike the ugly scars littered upon my body, and I wanted to know the story behind it, but now wasn’t the time. 

“You know this place better than I do,” I finally said once I snapped out of my daze. “Do you know anywhere that could keep you hidden and safe at least for a little while?”

“The fifth floor is under construction and nobody is there at this time,” she mumbled. “They probably expect me to be on the floors where the rest of the patients are, so they might not check there for a while.”

“We’ll go there,” I said. Before we ascended up the stairs, I tugged her a little closer to me. I cleared my throat and whispered softly, “in order for you to make it out alive I need you to listen to me. You can’t worry about me like you did yesterday. If I tell you to do something, I need you to do it. Your emotions can’t stop you. Promise me you’ll listen to every order I give you.”

“I promise,” she nodded.

I released her hand and we climbed the stairs to the fifth floor. I had my gun out, prepared to fire my weapon any second. There were several large piles of wood that made for a good hiding place. We hid behind one that gave us good sight of the door, but we were out of sight from anyone coming in.

I felt my phone ringing in my pocket, and I pulled it out to see Jesse calling. I quickly answered, hoping he had some sort of good news.

“Hello?”

“Beca, there’s no signs of any threats around the building,” he said. “The SWAT team is already making their way into the building, and evacuating as many people as they can. They’re taking it floor by floor, so the shooter will probably be heading up towards the fifth floor to hide. Where are you right now?”

My breath hitched in my throat upon hearing what he said. I hated myself for not thinking about the possibility that the shooter would find refuge here. Things just became far more complicated than they already were.

“Jesse, Chloe and I are on the fifth floor.”

“Fuck,” I heard him mutter under his breath through the speaker of my phone. I heard some rustling in the background. “I’ll see if I can send some people up, but I don’t know how long you have. He could be up any second.”

Right after the words left Jesse’s mouth, the door that led to the stairwell opened, revealing a large, muscular man. I immediately hung up the phone, not wanting to give up our hiding spot. I faced Chloe and saw tears already streaming down her face. She was terrified, and if I was being honest, I was kind of scared too. So many things could go wrong.

“I’m going to distract him, once he’s focused on me, you need to go and run to the stairwell. The SWAT team is here, they’ll take you to safety,” I whispered practically inaudibly, but I knew she understood. She looked like she wanted to argue, but to my surprise, she just nodded.

I slowly made my way towards the man, careful not to be spotted. I had my gun in my left hand, but I didn’t plan to shoot him unless necessary. If I could, I was keeping this man alive, and using him to gather information on the people trying to kill the redhead.

When I got close enough behind him, I kicked the back of his knee, causing him to stumble a bit. While he was trying to regain his balance, I knocked his gun out of his hands and sent it clattering to the ground and out of his reach. I wrapped my right arm around his neck and squeezed as hard as I could.

“How many of you are there?” I growled venomously in his ear as he clawed against my arm trying to break free. I had my gun pressed against his temple, hoping it would intimidate him into talking.

I hadn’t expected him to answer, but I really didn’t expect to be flipped over his shoulders and slammed into the ground. My vision blurred as my head connected with the ground, the wind was knocked out of me, and my gun slid out of my hands. A loud cry of pain echoed throughout the room, and it took me a moment to realize that it came from me.

He was pinning me down against the floor almost as soon as I landed on the ground. I watched as his fist came down and connected with the right side of my face. Immediately I could taste blood in my mouth and I spit it in his face. I knew it was a cheap shot but I was hoping it would be enough of a distraction to wiggle free from his grasp, but he was much bigger than I was and his hold on me was strong.

My vision was still blurred, but I could still make out him pulling out a knife. I saw him raise the knife over his head, and I quickly got one hand free to stop him before he could plunge it into my chest. Pure adrenaline coursed through my veins as I struggled to keep the knife away, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold him off for long. There was no way that I would be able to break my other hand free and reach for my gun.

The knife got closer to my chest, and I was losing my strength. I looked around to the spot Chloe had been hiding and didn’t see her. If I was going to die, my one hope was for her to be safe. I could feel the tip of the knife dig into my chest and it wasn’t deep but I could feel blood begin to drip down my body.

And then there was a shot fired, and the man who had been about to kill me slumped to the side, releasing me from his grasp. I pushed his body off of me and looked down to see a bullet lodged into his forehead, his lifeless eyes staring back at me. 

I looked up to see Chloe holding a gun between her shaking hands, pure terror reflecting in those bright blue eyes. I shakily got onto my hands and knees, spitting out the blood that had filled my mouth from the punch to the face. I got up onto unsteady legs and limped over to the redhead.

The gun was still held in front of her, and she seemed to be stuck in shock. I placed my hands over hers and pried the gun out of her hands. She looked so broken and scared and I wished I had been stronger for her. I was supposed to be protecting her, and here she was saving my life.

“You didn’t listen to me,” I whispered. I wasn’t angry at her, far from it. I was more disappointed in myself for not being able to hold my own. “I told you to get to safety.”

“I know,” she breathed out. “I know I didn’t listen to you, but I— I couldn’t leave you to die.”

“I’m supposed to be the one protecting you, remember?” I smiled softly, hoping to put the older woman at ease.

She didn’t respond. She was looking at me with a fire in her eyes that I couldn’t quite place, and then I felt a hand grab the back of my neck and pull me forwards. Her lips were on mine in an instant and I stood in complete shock as Chloe Beale kissed me.

I didn’t even have a chance to process what happened before she pulled away, a panicked look spread across her face. She blinked a few times like she didn’t even know what she had just done.

“I-I’m so sorry. That was a mistake. I shouldn’t have-”

“Hey,” I interrupted her, reaching out and placing my hand on her shoulder to get her to focus. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it, you’re emotions are kind of crazy right now after what happened, and sometimes we do things we don’t mean. Don’t worry about it. It’s already forgotten about.”

The words tasted like poison in my mouth. There was an ache in my chest when I noticed her breathe out a sigh of relief. I didn’t know why I was so upset by that.

“Come on,” I sighed, making sure to keep the disappointment out of my voice. “Let’s get out of here. I’m probably going to need even more stitches after today.”

She smiled at me, it was small, but it was progress. As we walked down to where the SWAT team was, keeping a small gap between us, I couldn’t help but reach up and lightly brush my fingertips across my lips. They were still tingling after the kiss with Chloe.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning that there is mention of sexual assault in this chapter very very briefly. It isn't graphic, it's just mentioned in one sentence toward the end of the chapter. I just wanted to put that out there in case it would be triggering for any of my readers. Hope you enjoy chapter 7!

Two weeks after the shooting at the hospital, we arrived at a beach house in Miami. It belonged to Chloe’s grandparents, and the two of us would be staying in it for a while. It wasn’t safe for her to stay in Washington D.C at the moment, so she took some time off from work and we left in the middle of the night with the temporary car Jason gave me until mine got fixed, so there would be a lesser chance of us getting followed. Jason and Kate had some meetings here, and they’d be arriving with the rest of the security team in the next few days. I was hoping with our secretive departure in the middle of the night we will get a few days of peace until everybody else shows up.

Chloe and I didn’t talk about the kiss. In fact, we didn’t talk much at all, and I knew that she was having a hard time dealing with what happened. I still remember the first person I killed, and even though it was to protect myself, it still haunted me. I was trained to do this, but Chloe wasn’t, so I could only imagine how she was dealing with this.

Chloe would check my injuries every day and then she would go into her room for most of the day. I no longer had stitches, but my face was still pretty bruised. I had a mild concussion from hitting my head, but aside from some small headaches every now and then I felt fine.

I put my bags in the room I’d be staying in and then went into the living room where Chloe was. There was a large window in the room that had a great view of the ocean. She was looking out the window, and I had excited butterflies in my stomach from being so close to the beach. We didn’t take vacations when I was younger since my father was so obsessed with working.

“I’ve never been to the beach before,” I told her. She turned to me and looked surprised, and I realized that’s the first reaction I’ve gotten out of her in two weeks. “We didn’t go on vacations when I was a kid.”

“Well, let’s go then,” she smiled softly. It was a small smile, but it was better than the blank stare or the frown that she'd been sporting the past couple weeks.

“We don’t have to go just because I’ve never been. I’m the one who’s supposed to be your bodyguard, which means I’m the one who follows  _ you _ , so if you don’t want to go then we don’t have to.”

“I want to go,” Chloe insisted. “It’ll help me take my mind off of things. Plus, I want to be the person you first experience the ocean with.”

“Okay then,” I smiled. I began to walk to the door but Chloe’s hand grabbed mine and pulled me back. I frowned when I saw the look on her face. Her head was tilted to the side, her lips were curved down in a pout, and her eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. “What’s wrong, Ms. Beale?”

“Do you actually expect me to allow you to go to the beach wearing a tank top, jeans, and combat boots? You need to put a bathing suit on!” She exclaimed. “And why did you start doing that again?”

“Doing what?”

“Calling me ‘Ms. Beale’. You’ve been doing it for the past two weeks.”

My cheeks reddened in embarrassment as I tried to wrack my brain for excuses. I couldn’t exactly tell her how I actually feel. I’ve been forcing myself to be professional with her, no longer chatting with her about our pasts, calling her “Ms. Beale”, not allowing myself to think about the feeling of her lips pressed against mine. I’ve been doing a terrible job at not thinking about that kiss, and I wish I could just forget about it because there is no way Chloe actually reciprocated my feelings.

“I’m just trying to be professional,” I muttered, looking down at my feet.

“Professional?” She scoffed. “Don’t you think we’re a little past that point?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“Nothing, I just— I thought we were becoming friends,” she sighed. Her shoulders slumped in defeat, and I thought I could see tears in her eyes. “Are you acting this way because I-”

“No,” I interrupted her, immediately knowing what she was going to ask. “Chloe, I’m not acting like this because you kissed me. I’m acting like this because in the hospital I was  _ weak _ . I was distracted and I let my emotions cloud my judgment. If I had been stronger you wouldn’t have had to save me. You wouldn’t be feeling like this.”

“Beca, you weren’t weak at the hospital,” she said. She stepped closer to me and intertwined our fingers. “You were willing to die for me. That man was going to kill you, Beca, and you weren’t even afraid.”

“That’s not true. I was afraid,” I whispered. I took a step closer to her so there was just a few inches between us. I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat and took a deep breath to calm my nerves.  “I was afraid of losing you.”

She didn’t say anything, she just stayed silent. I held my breath as I waited for her to do  _ something _ , anything would have been better than the silence. I had been feeling courageous in that moment, but now that courage completely vanished and I was feeling disappointed. I took a step back from the taller woman and sighed in defeat.

“I’m going to go get dressed properly for the beach,” I mumbled, turning to walk away.

“Beca, wait!” Chloe called out. She grabbed my arm and spun me back towards her. “What does that mean?”

“It’s just like you said,” I whispered.  I had so many things I wanted to say to her. I wanted to tell her how my feelings for her snuck up on me and I didn’t realize them until I thought I was going to die in order for her to get out safely. I wanted to tell her how I felt as though I hadn’t been living until we kissed. I wanted to tell her that no matter how beautiful the ocean looked from this view, it was nothing compared to the color of her eyes. But in the twenty seconds that Chloe had stayed silent my courage disappeared, so instead of all the things I wanted to say, I settled on saying, “we’re friends.”

She released my arm as if my skin had burned her. For a brief second I thought I saw a flash of disappointment on her face but then her jaw clenched and she nodded.

“Right, of course we are,” she said. She pointed in the direction of her bedroom. “I’m going to go get ready.”

I watched her disappear into her bedroom. It was extremely difficult to hide my feelings for Chloe, but I had to do it. It would look incredibly bad to everyone if I started dating the boss’ daughter. I wasn’t even sure if the whole security team even respected me yet, and if I didn’t stay professional with Chloe they never would respect me.

“What the fuck are you getting yourself into, Mitchell?” I groaned before making my way to my room. 

I dug through my suitcase until I found the black bikini I had brought with me. Once I had it on, I looked at myself in the mirror. I wanted to hide the scar on my chest, but it wasn’t possible with the lack of clothing I was wearing. I hated looking at it because it reminded me of what happened in Afghanistan.

I cleared my head of all thoughts about Afghanistan. Working for Jason was supposed to be a fresh beginning where I could forget about all the treachery I witnessed overseas. I slipped on a pair of flip flops and headed back out to the living room where Chloe was waiting for me.

“Ready?” She asked.

I nodded and we walked out of the house. I took my flip flops off and felt the warm sand between my toes, and I couldn’t help but smile. It was an amazing feeling, and I was buzzing with excitement.

“Come on,” I grinned, grabbing Chloe’s hand and dragging her to the shoreline.

I heard her giggle behind me and it made me even happier. I ran into the water and felt the waves crash into me, and I realized that I hadn’t felt this peaceful in a long time. It wasn’t just the heat of the sun on my skin, or the cool salty water surrounding me, or the sand beneath my feet that made me feel like this. It was also the girl next to me, who was watching me with a smile on her face.

“Is it everything you had been hoping for?” She asked.

“It’s better,” I breathed out. “Thank you for coming out here with me. It’s amazing.”

“It’s not a problem. I enjoy seeing you happy, it’s a look that suits you.”

“I think it’s impossible to be unhappy while out here,” I smiled.

What I didn’t mention was that I found it impossible to be unhappy while I was with her.

Three days after we arrived, Jason, Kate, and the rest of security arrived in Miami. After a brief conversation on the phone with Jesse, I found out that Jason needed to see Chloe and I with the security team as soon as possible. Jesse only mentioned that the situation was urgent, but he didn’t give me any other details. He also mentioned that someone would pick us up to escort us to the meeting for both of our safety, which is the part that confused me the most.

I was confused because I wasn’t the one who needed protecting. I was fully capable of taking care of myself and Chloe as well. I wondered if something happened to Jason and Kate back in Washington D.C, but if something happened I would have been notified and it definitely would have been on the news.

Amy was the one who picked us up for the meeting, and she was back to her crazy, bubbly personality. I was glad to see her, because although she refused to call me by my actual name, she was one of the secret service agents who had welcomed me with open arms.

“So, Amy,” I said once Chloe and I had gotten settled and Amy began driving. “Do you have any idea what is so urgent about this meeting? Because I’m being kept in the dark on this, which I find very odd since I am the head of security.”

“Sorry, boss. Can’t disclose any information to you. President’s orders,” she replied.

“But you do know what’s going on?”

“Yes.”

“Why won’t you tell me then?” I continued to question the blonde. “Why do you need to drive us there? I’m more than capable of taking care of both of us.”

“Listen Shawshank, all I’m going to say is that the ginger isn’t the only one in danger in your little Bechloe duo.”

“What the hell is ‘Bechloe’?” Chloe piped up from the back seat.

“You haven’t heard? That’s what the magazines are calling you two. They say you’re the cutest couple.”

I felt my cheeks redden, forgetting that the media started rumors about us. At first it was a little funny when I saw the headlines, but I felt embarrassed now that I have actual feelings for Chloe. Feelings that most definitely weren’t reciprocated.

“Okay gal pals, we’re here,” Amy said once we pulled into the parking lot of the building the meeting was being held in.

I got out of the car and opened the door for Chloe. Amy led us into the building and to where the meeting was going to be held. It was a big room and all of the secret service agents were sitting at the large table inside. Jason and Kate were sitting next to each other at the end of the table, and there were three empty spots for Amy, Chloe, and I at the opposite end. Chloe and I sat down next to each other, and Amy was to the left of Chloe.

“I’m glad you two could make it,” Jason smiled, but it seemed way too forced. It didn’t quite reach his eyes, and his shoulders were tensed up. I knew something wasn’t right, and I hoped he wasn’t going to beat around the bush.

Chloe could also tell that something was wrong, because I heard her breath hitch in her throat and her hand grasped mine under the table. The gesture startled me, but I gently squeezed it hoping to reassure her that everything would be okay.

“Dad, what’s going on? Why hasn’t anybody told us what’s going on?” Chloe asked frantically. She looked around at all the agents at the table, who just looked down at their hands in response. “Have you received more threats? Have they gotten worse? Am I in even more danger than I was before?”

I remembered in the car when I was questioning Amy she said Chloe wasn’t the only one in danger. I hadn’t really processed what she said at the time because we got distracted by mine and Chloe’s couple name, but now I knew exactly why Jason called this meeting. It wasn’t about Chloe. It was about me.

“Chloe, I don’t think this meeting is about you” I mumbled softly, squeezing her hand once more. I looked across the table at Jason and raised an eyebrow. “This is about me, isn’t it?”

“Unfortunately, Beca. It is about you,” he sighed. He leaned forward and rested his arms against the table. “I don’t want to drag this out, so I’m going to get right to the point. We’ve recently received a threat unlike any of the ones we’ve received about Chloe. Usually they just say that they plan to kill Chloe to get back at me for the evil I’ve brought upon them. This one though… it was— it was different.”

I frowned upon hearing Jason stumble over his words. He was usually very well spoken, able to deliver speeches to millions of people without a script in front of him. So hearing him stammer caused my stomach to churn uncomfortably. This time Chloe was the one to squeeze my hand.

“Well, what did it say?” I asked quietly, not really wanting to know what it said.

“It said that they were going to make you pay,” he said practically inaudible. The only reason why I was able to hear him was because every person in the room was silent and hanging onto every word he said. “It said that they wanted to capture you. Once they do, they’re going to broadcast you being raped, tortured, and eventually killed for the entire world to see. They said they won’t stop until they get to you.”

Silence enveloped everyone in the room. I didn’t know what to say to what Jason just informed me. I just sat there with my mouth hanging open and my eyes wide. I glanced around the room and saw most people had a similar reaction. Chloe on the other hand looked like she was about to cry.

“Why are they targeting Beca?” Benji was the first one to speak up.

“My guess is it’s because she was a soldier, a damn good one, too,” Jason replied. “She had about 130 confirmed kills in only seven years of serving.”

I heard Chloe gasp besides me and she wrenched her hand out of mine. For these past few weeks with Chloe, she had seen me as the good guy. But she was now looking at me like the monster that I am. I closed my eyes tightly as memories flooded my mind: the ambush, the day Shane died, all the people I’ve killed. I felt sick and I needed to get away from everybody.

I never wanted Chloe to learn about my past. Hell, I didn’t even want to remember my past. I thought working for Jason would be my fresh start and allow me to forget about my time in Afghanistan. I should have known that the past has a way of catching up with me, it always has.

And my past is what is going to get me killed.


	8. Chapter 8

I closed my bedroom door behind me and leaned against it. I closed my eyes as images of Chloe looking at me like I was a monster flooded through my mind. I wanted to reach out to her and tell her I wasn’t that person anymore, but then I’d be lying to her. I was still killing people even though I wasn’t on a battlefield anymore. Granted, I was doing it to protect  _ her _ , but I was still doing it. In Afghanistan it was either kill or be killed, but how could I make her understand that?

Not much more was said after Jason informed us of the new threats against me. To be safe, we had another bodyguard with us at all times. Amy, Jesse, Luke, and Benji were going to rotate as our guards, and today Amy was our guard. She had driven us back to the beach house, and the ride had been uncomfortably quiet. Even Amy picked up on the tension between the two of us and chose not to speak on the way back.

The door to my bedroom was forcefully pushed open, which made me stumble across the room. A quiet grunt escaped my lips and when I turned around to see the intruder, I was pushed backwards even more and the back of my legs hit my bed.

“130 people?! You’ve killed 130 fucking people?” Chloe shouted, her cheeks were red from anger and her breathing was heavy. She pushed at my shoulders again, but this time I was expecting it and didn’t budge. “How could you do that? How could you kill that many people?”

“I was a soldier, Chloe. I did what I had to do to survive,” I sighed. “How do you think I became a captain so quickly? It wasn’t because I sat there twiddling my thumbs and hoped I’d be promoted.”

I reached out my hand to place on her shoulder, but when she flinched away I quickly retracted it. It hurt to see her looking at me like I’m some kind of wild beast ready to attack at any second. I was used to accusing glares being sent my way when people saw that I was a soldier, but having them coming from Chloe was actually painful to see.

“Chloe, when I first joined the army I was angry. I lost my mom, who was the only person I ever really cared about, so I guess you could say I was pretty heartless. My anger skewed my judgment, and I didn't really think about right and wrong like everyone else. And since I was a girl I had to prove myself that much more,” I explained. My hands twitched at my sides, wanting to reach out to her again, but I was scared of the rejection I was bound to receive. “When I was just a private, there was this small ambush where five men attacked my troop. I was the only private out of the seven others there who fired my weapon and fought back. The six other privates were too scared to do anything. I killed three of the five men, and that’s when the army saw that I had potential and turned me into what I am now.”

"And you just think that's okay?! You think it's okay that you went to these people's homes and  _ murdered  _ them? What's your excuse for killing them, that you were angry about your mother's death? Jesus, Beca! Who even are you?"

I was angry now. I was always able to shake off any hatred I got from people for being a soldier, but for some reason it made me inexplicably angry to hear Chloe calling me a murderer. I clenched my fists at my sides, trying to reign in my anger but it wasn’t working. 

“Do you seriously think I just went and killed people because I had mommy issues?” I snarled. “Do you think I went out of my way to find the perfect target and decide ‘Hey! I’m going to kill him today!’”

I took a menacing step forward and she immediately backed up. Her eyes were wide, and I think even she realized that she took it a step too far. I didn’t realize that I had continued to walk toward her until her back hit the bedroom door. We were mere inches away from each other now.

“I didn’t go to Afghanistan specifically to kill people. That was the downside to the job. I went there to  _ help _ them, Chloe! I helped build schools and buildings, I played with the children, I helped out the men and women who were working. The only time I ever used my weapon was if somebody came at my troop first, and unfortunately that was quite often.”

My voice cracked and I realized then that I was close to tears. Chloe’s eyes were softer now, no longer flashing with anger. I grabbed the dog chains that hung around my neck and squeezed them tightly. Some days I was proud to wear them, but other days they felt like a noose around my neck.

“Chloe, you don’t understand. I am  _ haunted _ by every single person who I’ve killed, even though they were bad people. Some of them weren’t even bad and were just pressured into following al-Qaeda because they use intimidation to get people to follow them. And it  _ kills _ me every day, because some of them were just doing this to protect their families from the  _ real _ threat, but they would have killed me and my men and I just couldn’t— I couldn’t let that happen.”

Tears were falling freely now, and Chloe reached out and cupped my face with both hands. Her thumbs wiped the tears as they fell.

“I’m sorry, Beca. I didn’t understand but I do now,” she whispered.

“This is me, Chloe. The person I am with you, that’s  _ me _ . The person that I am and the person that I had to be in Afghanistan to survive, are two different people. I need you to understand that. I was just trying to be the  _ good  _ guy. I never meant to be a monster.”

“I know, Beca. I know,” she said and pulled me into a hug. "I'm sorry. I had no right to yell at you. Especially after all that you’ve done for me. I’m so, so sorry.”

I clutched the back of her shirt and buried my face in the crook of her neck as sobs wracked my body. I had been holding in all these emotions for years. The only person who I had been able to discuss this with was Shane, but he was dead and that too was my fault.

I pulled away from her once my sobs subsided. I noticed my eyeliner was smudged on her shirt, and felt my cheeks heat up from embarrassment.

“I look like a raccoon right now,” I smiled sheepishly, bowing my head so she couldn’t see the eyeliner that was most likely smudged all over my face.

She gently lifted my head up with her index finger so she could look into my eyes. Her hands came up again to gently cup my face, and she used her thumbs to wipe away as much makeup as she could. I had to hold my breath from the intensity of her gaze, and I could have sworn I saw her glance down at my lips.

“You look beautiful,” she murmured. This time I  _ definitely _ saw her look down at my lips, and it was then that I realized how close we were.

“Chloe, I…”

I trailed off when something caught my attention. I noticed a red dot on the door just above Chloe’s head… a red dot that was moving towards her forehead. My eyes widened when I realized what it was, and I immediately took action.

I firmly grabbed both of Chloe’s arms and knocked her legs out from under her. We both fell to the ground and grunted in pain. It was far from graceful, but at that point I didn’t care about a few potential bruises because as soon as I pushed Chloe out of the way a bullet was shot. It broke the window to the bedroom and went through the door, where Chloe’s head had just been.

Chloe’s eyes were wide with panic, and my heart was also racing. I didn’t expect them to find us so quickly after Jason arrived with the rest of the Secret Service.

“They found us.”


	9. Chapter 9

Bullets were being shot and it sounded like it was coming from somewhere else in the house. We needed to get out of this bedroom but I was nervous that more people were surrounding the house, or even in the house. I wasn’t just scared for mine and Chloe’s life, but Amy’s as well. With all the gunfire, I wasn’t sure if she was okay or hurt or dead, and thinking about another friend dying because of me made me feel nauseous.

“I need you to stay right here," I ordered. "Do not move."

"Beca, you can't do this to me again. Every time you leave me, it's always to put yourself in danger," she cried out. She grabbed a fistful of my shirt and pulled me closer to her, and I realized then that I was basically on top of her from the fall. "I don't want you to leave me. Stay here."

"You know I can't do that, Chloe. I need you safe."

“Where do you expect to go? There’s a sniper right outside the window! They’ll shoot you as soon as you move.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m going to push the bookcase from the corner in front of the window so they can’t get in through there. Once I leave I want you to take the bed and push it in front of the bedroom door so they can’t get in here and then you’re going to hide in the closet, okay?”

She nodded in understanding and I took that as my cue to leave before she tried roping me into staying with her. I didn’t want to risk being seen by the sniper immediately, so I slid under the bed to make my way over to the other side of the room to give me the element of surprise. I took a deep breath before I scrambled across the room towards the bookcase. Shots were being fired but I tried not to pay attention to them and reach my destination.

Once I got to the bookcase I used all my strength to push it in front of the window. It was extremely heavy with all the books inside of it, so I wasn't worried about anyone being able to get inside once the window was blocked off.

"We need to move fast," I said once I had the bookcase in place. I went back to where Chloe was still on the ground and pulled her to her feet. "Help me push the bed."

We both pushed the bed towards the door, leaving a small space so I would be able to exit the room. I went to my bedside table and grabbed the knife that was there. I took my gun out of its holster and I turned back to Chloe and grabbed her hand, giving it a quick reassuring squeeze before placing the gun into the palm of her hand.

“I want you to hold onto this,” I said.

“But what about you? You need a gun, Beca. You can’t face these people who have snipers and god knows what else with just a knife.”

“I told you not to worry about me. I’ll be able to figure something out.”

“How can you expect me to  _ not  _ worry about you? I can’t stop worrying about you because I—”

"I don't want you to open this door for anybody except for me,” I interrupted her because we didn’t have time to be talking about this right now. “We need a code word."

"A code word for what?" She asked.

"A code word to let you know that it's safe for you to let me in. I don't know what may happen out there. These people could try to use me to get to you, so if that happens and I come to the door and don't say the code word, don't open the door," I explained quickly. We didn't have much time and I needed to get out of here to get help and to try and secure the area. "The code word is pineapple."

"Why pineapple?"

"I don't know, that's the first word that came to mind," I huffed. "I need to go. Lock and barricade the door then hide in the closet. I will come back for you as soon as it is safe."

I went to leave when Chloe pulled me back by the wrist. I looked up and saw tears forming in her eyes and I knew she was terrified because the last time I left her I was almost killed.

"Beca, I can't lose you."

"I'm right here, Chloe. I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

"How can you promise that?" She asked, her voice cracking as she tried to hold back her tears.

I glanced down at her lips then back up to look into her eyes. I wanted to kiss her because I felt like that was the only way to reassure her things would be okay, but this was the wrong time. If I kissed her now it would feel like I was saying goodbye. And I realized I couldn't promise her I will be okay because I don't know what I'm going to be faced with once I leave this room.

"I promise you I'll do everything I can to make it back to you," I whispered. That was the best thing I could offer her. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I could promise that I wasn’t going to go down without a damn fight. “I need to go now, you know the plan.”

I didn’t wait for her to respond before leaving because I couldn’t keep putting off the inevitable. I didn’t want to leave her but I had a responsibility to keep her safe and I couldn’t keep her safe if I was locked in this room. I squeezed through the small gap and exited the room, closing the door behind me quietly. I didn’t leave until I heard the bed get pushed up against the door and heard the lock click.

I slowly walked down the hall, careful not to make any noise as I moved. I reached the entryway to the kitchen and hid behind the wall when I heard commotion coming from inside the room, my knife was raised and ready for a fight. I peeked my head around the corner and saw Amy crouched down on the ground behind the kitchen island, blindly reaching up to try to grab something off of the counter. I also noticed that the window was broken and there were many bullet holes in the cabinets.

I crouched down and crawled over to Amy. I noticed her arm was bleeding a little bit and she was attempting to grab something off the counter to stop the blood.

“Are you hurt anywhere else?” I asked her. I tore off a piece of my t-shirt and used it to quickly dress the wound.

“No, just a small graze to the arm.”

“Do you know if anybody is in the house?”

“I’m not sure. I haven’t heard anything other than gunshots here and from your room where you and Chloe were. Is she safe?” Amy asked and I could tell she was worried for her friend.

“Yes, she’s safe. I’m not going to let anything happen to her,” I said sincerely, hoping Amy trusted me to protect Chloe.

“I called for backup while I was here being shot at. They should be here any second now. Jesse said he was going to send a group to take out the snipers and then him and a few others were going to come do a sweep of the house.”

“Good work, Amy. We need to check all entrance points of the house and make sure nobody gets in if they haven't already gotten inside.”

There hadn’t been any shots fired in a few minutes and I was nervous that the men were making their way into the house now, or it could mean that the team arrived and we were going to be safe. I was hoping it was the latter.

However, that hope I had vanished when I heard a loud crash, shortly followed by a shrill scream. My heart dropped to my stomach when I realized that Chloe was in danger. When I heard a gunshot I jumped into action immediately.

"Amy, give me your gun now," I ordered. As soon as the weapon was in my hand I was running for the bedroom, not caring about the snipers or potentially running into anybody else, my only focus was to get to Chloe.

I reached the bedroom and slammed my body into the door, but it didn't budge. I had completely forgotten that the door was locked and barricaded, which meant I was going to have to go in through the window and face the snipers outside.

"No, no, no!" I shouted, slamming my body into the door a few more times. I felt completely helpless. I thought I was doing the right thing by leaving Chloe in the room, but I had just put her in more danger.

I needed to move fast, so without wasting another second I ran toward the front door. As soon as the door was open I collided with another body. It was Jesse, and I felt a little relieved knowing we were no longer alone.

"Jesse, I need your help. Now."

"What's going on, Beca? Where's Chloe and Amy?"

"Amy's in the kitchen but they got to Chloe in the room I had her hiding in. I need your team to clear out the snipers so I can get in," I explained frantically, because the longer it took to explain the longer Chloe was in danger.

"The team already took out the snipers, but you shouldn't go in there alone. It's too dangerous."

"I have to. They'll hear us approaching if too many people come. I'm better off alone."

"Okay," he sighed. He handed me his M4 Carbine. “Take this with you, though. You’re probably facing a few guys and this has a faster firing rate than your gun.”

I nodded and then left him so he could check the rest of the house. I quietly walked around the house, making sure not to be too loud to alert anybody. I got to the window and listened closely for a second. There were a few people talking, and I as I listened I could make out three voices. This wasn’t going to be difficult because I had the element of surprise, all I needed to do was act quickly.

I took a deep breath and then gracefully hopped over the windowsill into the room. I landed on the fallen bookcase and immediately fired my weapon at the men. I was correct when assuming there were three men. Two of them had guns, and the other was using Chloe as a shield and was holding a knife to her throat. I noticed the man who had Chloe was also bleeding from his leg, and I assumed the gunshot that I heard was Chloe shooting at him. I shot the man closest to me in the left side of his chest, he hadn’t even gotten a chance to fire his weapon at me. The next man fired a few times, but he had terrible aim and missed every time, so I quickly fired and hit him in the neck. He choked on his last breath before falling to the ground.

“Let her go,” I growled at the man and pointed my gun at him. I was hoping he couldn’t see how much my hands were shaking, because I was absolutely terrified. I felt like it was my fault Chloe was in danger, and I felt sick to my stomach. “You want me, don’t you? Take me instead, just let her go.”

“Do you think I’m stupid, Rebeca Mitchell?” The man said in a thick accent. His sinister smile made my stomach churn uncomfortably. “I know exactly how to get under your skin, and it’s by using her.”

I looked at Chloe and noticed that she was trying to silently communicate with me. She was tapping her shoulder, and I realized what she was telling me to do. She wanted me to shoot her to get him, and I really didn’t want to because the thought of hurting Chloe didn’t sit well with me, but that was the only option we had.

“You have one chance to tell me who you are and who you’re working for.”

“You really are stupid,” he chuckled. “I will never tell y-”

The sound of my gun firing cut him off and his lifeless body fell to the ground. I immediately ran to Chloe and caught her in my arms before she fell to the ground. Blood was seeping through her shirt and I put pressure on the wound, causing Chloe to cry out in pain.

“I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry,” I whispered. My chest felt uncomfortably tight, and my breaths were coming out in quick, short, gasps. I was on the verge of a panic attack. “This is my fault. This is all my fault. I should have never left you alone, I’m so sorry.”

She reached up with shaky hands and wiped away the tear that had fallen. This day has taken it’s toll on me, and I’ve cried way too much. But things could have been much worse if I had taken any longer, and that thought knocked the wind out of me.

“This isn’t your fault, Beca. You made the right decision, and if you hadn’t left me here there would probably still be a sniper trying to shoot us.”

I sighed and nodded. Chloe didn’t need to hear about how insecure I was feeling right now. I mean, I just shot her to kill the guy who was trying to kill her. She didn’t need to hear about how I felt inadequate for this job, how I felt like I let her down.

“Let’s get you some help.”

I had her sit up against the wall while I moved the bed out of the way of the door. I went back over to her and helped her up, wrapping my arm around her waist and she wrapped her good arm around my shoulders.

We walked out of the bedroom and down the hallway. There were a few people still lingering around the house, but for the most part it was pretty empty. When we walked outside, there was already an ambulance, and a ton of news reporters. Lights were flashing in our faces as soon as we were noticed, and I had to bite my tongue so I wouldn’t snap at the reporters to get the fuck out of our way. Once we fought our way through the crowd, Chloe was placed on a stretcher to be taken to the hospital.

“I have to check in with Jesse to see if any of the guys gathered any information, but I’ll send some guards with you and then meet you at the hospital, okay?” I took a hold of her hand and squeezed it. I didn’t know if I was trying to comfort her or myself.

“Be quick, okay?” She looked and sounded exhausted, but even after all the bullshit that happened today she still looked beautiful. 

“I promise I won’t be long,” I smiled softly, giving her hand one last squeeze before turning to find Jesse. On my way back to find Jesse, I remembered our moment before the snipers started shooting at us. I wish I could go back and just tell her how I felt before the snipers came. I was so close.

“Beca, wait!” I heard Chloe shout as I was halfway through the mob of reporters. I turned and walked back toward the ambulance. Once I was within arm’s reach of her, she grabbed my shirt and tugged me forward. Our faces were mere inches apart, and I could feel her warm breath against my lips. “Beca, I can’t go another second without kissing you.”

And then her lips were on mine, and this time I was ready to kiss her back. It was soft and slow, but still passionate. I reached up and tangled my fingers in her hair. For the past few weeks I was tiptoeing around my feelings for Chloe, not wanting to tell her how I felt until the time was right, but maybe we just needed to make the time right all along. All day I felt like things were crumbling apart around me, and all I could do was sit and watch it happen, but right now, with Chloe’s lips on mine, it felt like things might actually be falling into place.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank everybody who has waited so long for me to finally

_ The first thing I notice is the heat. I’m laying on the ground with the heat from the sun pounding down on me, and I can feel the dirt beneath my fingertips. The next thing I notice is the noise; I can hear gunfire and screaming and bullets ricocheting off of metal.  When I open my eyes to look at my surroundings I see my men fighting the al-Qaeda group that ambushed us. I know I’m dreaming, or hallucinating, or  _ **_something_ ** _ , but that doesn’t stop the fear from gripping at my heart. _

_ I see a man coming towards me, but my gun is out of my reach, so I grab the knife that’s strapped to my calf and plunge it into his Achilles tendon. When he falls to the ground, I yank my knife out of the tendon and plunge it into his chest. _

_ I look down, expecting to see the face of a young man, however when I look at the body I see the face of Unicycle. I look down at my hands that are now covered in blood, and then back at the body. _

_ The face shifts. I’m staring at Bumper’s pale deceased face as blood seeps out of his mouth. I blink and the face shifts again. Familiar green eyes stare into my soul. _

_ “You were supposed to protect us, Beca,” Shane’s raspy voice calls out to me. “Why weren’t you there for us, Beca?” _

_ I look up and I’m surrounded by men I fought side by side with who lost their lives. Their bloody corpses coming closer and closer to me, their words echoing through my mind. _

_ “Where were you, Beca?” _

_ “Why weren’t you there for us, Beca?” _

_ “We trusted you” _

_ “Why didn’t you save us?” _

_ Their words feel like knives through the heart. I can’t breathe and honestly I’ve given up trying. I’m a monster and these good men and women are dead and I’m to blame. I couldn’t protect them when I promised I would. I deserved to be right there with them. Cold. Rotting. Lifeless. They’re closing in on me when— _

I feel a hand on my shoulder and I’m pulled out of my trance. I turn around to see Benji looking worried. I look around and notice I’m standing in the hallway of the hospital that Chloe had been taken to.

“Beca, are you okay? You don’t look good. Are you hurt?” He asks, his eyebrows were furrowed and I could see the concern in his eyes.

“I’m okay, I just got lost in thought,” I mumble. I take a few deep breaths to try to bring myself back to reality. The past two times I’ve been in a hospital haven’t been under good circumstances, but I didn’t expect to have an episode like that just by being here. I’m used to the dreams, but I don’t usually see things like that when I’m conscious. “I’m looking for Chloe’s room.”

“It’s down this hall, third door to the left,” he replied. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, thanks, Benji.”

I turn back around and head for the room Benji directed me to. I quietly open the door and see Chloe laying in a white hospital gown with her red hair sprawled across the pillow. She was staring right at me as I walked in and I can visibly see her body relax when she notices it’s me, her shoulders slump back and the furrow in her brow goes away.

“Hey there,” I say softly as I close the door behind me. I could see the bandage on her shoulder peeking out of her hospital gown. Guilt surged through me seeing the woman that I have begun to grow so fond of injured. I walked towards the bed and sat on the edge, grabbing Chloe’s hand and squeezing it. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m good, they have me on some painkillers so I have minimal pain. I think they should be releasing me to go home soon,” she replied. She was looking at me closely, like she was trying to gauge what was going on in my head. I looked down at our intertwined hands to break eye contact.

This was our first time seeing each other since our first kiss, well, our first  _ real _ kiss. I didn’t really know what to say or how to feel. I’m happy that it happened, but I didn’t know what that meant for us going forward. Everything has been happening so quickly, and I don’t really know how to act or what to think.

“Hey,” she whispered, lifting my chin up with her fingertips so I would look her in the eyes. “What’s going on? You don’t look well.”

I didn’t know how she could see through my facade so quickly, I spent my whole life shutting my emotions off so nobody could tell what I was thinking or how I was feeling. In just a couple weeks, Chloe has been able to see right through that every time.

“I just feel like every time something horrible happens to you it’s because I failed to do my job properly,” I muttered. “I feel like I’ve put you in more danger because I’ve made stupid decisions. I feel like I shouldn’t be the one in charge of watching over you.”

“The only reason why I’m still alive is because of you, Becs,” she said as she squeezed my hand for reassurance. Even though I still felt guilty for everything, the sound of the nickname she gave me lifted my spirits a bit. “You have proven to me on several occasions in the past few weeks that you are willing to  _ die _ in order to keep me safe. You did what you thought was right earlier, you left to try to protect me. Even with everything going on you still make me feel like I’m safe, and if I didn’t have you I probably wouldn’t have even survived the car chase while coming back from the mall. You are so amazing at everything you do. Please don’t feel like any of this is your fault because it’s just like you said, you’re not the one who’s trying to kill me, you’re the one trying to put an end to all of it.”

“How do you do that so well?”

“Do what?”

“You always know the right things to say to make me feel better,” I smiled softly. “I’m just glad to see that you’re okay.”

“You have good aim,” she chuckled, and I had to bite my lip to fight the urge to smile from the sound. “The doctor said I should have a fast recovery and the bullet didn’t hit anything that would cause complications.”

Just as she finished speaking the doctor walked in to inform us that Chloe was all set to go home. One of the other Secret Service agents had brought her a change of clothes since the clothes she was wearing before coming to the hospital now had blood all over them, so once all the paperwork was filled out for her dismissal I sat in the waiting room for her to get dressed. She came out of the hospital room in a plain white t-shirt, black skinny jeans, and all black Nike sneakers.

When she saw me waiting, her face broke out into a delighted grin, and I swear my heart skipped a beat at the sight. Something about Chloe dressed so casually had my hands sweaty and made my mouth go dry, she was usually dressed pretty fancy and professional even when she was just at home. For someone who had just gotten shot, she looked radiant.

“Ready to head out?” She asked as she came closer to me. “Where exactly are we going to go now? The house is trashed after today.”

“Come with me. We need to speak in private,” I ordered, leading Chloe in the direction of the hospital’s exit. She followed along silently, and when we exited the hospital I quickly escorted her to the car. “We need to check the car to make sure nobody put any tracking device or anything on it.”

“What?!” She exclaimed, her eyes wide and jaw dropped. “What do you mean? You think someone would do that?”

“I wouldn’t put it past these people,” I sighed. “There’s gotta be a reason they found us so quickly. We had been very careful, I don’t see any other way of them knowing where we were. Take a look on your side, let me know if you see a wire or a blinking light or just something that looks out of place.”

I looked along the driver’s side of the car and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I dropped down on my knees to take a look underneath the vehicle. I used my phone as a flashlight, and sure enough, there it was. A blinking red light was flashing, and I reached out to pull it off the underside of the car. This is how they found us, but the pieces didn’t add up. Who else had access to this car before it was given to me?

“Found it,” I called out to the redhead. I stood back up to show her the device that was used to find our location. I dropped it on the ground and stomped on it with the heel of my shoe to destroy it. “We need to go now, they’re going to notice that they can’t track us anymore and will probably come to the last place they could track us.”

I didn’t have a plan. I had no idea where we could go. We had none of our belongings on us, but it was way too risky to go back to Chloe’s grandparent’s beach house after everything that just happened. All I knew is that I needed to get both of us far away from here without many people knowing.

We each got into the car, and as soon as we were both buckled I sped off to get as much distance between us and the hospital. I was trying to wrack my brain of possible places we could go from here, but not a single place came to mind. I was nervously drumming my thumbs against the steering wheel as I was driving, and biting my bottom lip so hard I wouldn’t be surprised if I was drawing blood. I  _ hated _ this feeling that had consumed me since I saw that red dot aiming towards Chloe.

“Beca?”

I snapped my head to the right, noticing for the first time that Chloe appeared to be speaking to me and I hadn’t heard a single thing she said. I shook my head, hoping that would clear my mind, before muttering an apology and indicating that she now had my full attention.

“What are we doing?” She asked, and damn was that a loaded question. Whether she was referring to where we were currently headed off to, or whether she was referring to the kiss we shared and where that was leading us, the answer was the same.

“I don’t know,” I replied earnestly. I hated that I couldn’t give her a better answer than that, hated that she was caught in between this, hated that I couldn’t give her  _ something _ to hope for. “I need you to call your father.”

Chloe nodded and immediately pulled her phone out call Jason. I wasn’t surprised when Jason picked up immediately, no doubt worried sick about the wellbeing of his daughter. I waited patiently as the two of them spoke, Chloe reassuring him that her and I were safe.

“Beca needs to speak with you, dad,” Chloe said into the phone. I could see tears brimming her eyes, obviously feeling emotional after everything that’s happened. “I love you, too. Here she is.”

She passed me the phone, and as I took it our fingers brushed and I was shocked at the electricity that shot through my body from such a simple touch. I didn’t have time to dwell on the feeling, which was probably a good thing because of course I wanted to figure out my feelings for Chloe, but it was the least of my concerns at the time being.

“Hey, Jason,” I greeted.

“Beca, how are you doing?” He asked, and I could hear the stress in the older man’s voice. Jason Beale didn’t get stressed out a lot, but with running a country and having his daughter and me being hunted,  I really wasn’t surprised that it was taking a toll on him.

“We’re okay,” I answered, hoping that would put him at ease a bit. “I’m sorry, Jason. I thought our plan would work out, at least buy us some more time.”

“You don’t need to apologize for anything,” he said, sincerity lacing every word he spoke. “I’m so grateful that you two are alive. I should be thanking you.”

I swallowed the uncomfortable feeling I get when people compliment my work, not that I don’t believe I do a good job, I just don’t like the attention on me. Plus, there were more important things to discuss.

“Jason, we found a tracking device on the car I was given while mine has been in the shop,” I explained. I let my words hang in the air for a moment for them to sink in. “I need a list of everybody who was in contact with this vehicle before it was given to me.”

“You think somebody on the inside is involved in this.”

It wasn’t a question. He caught on to what I was insinuating, and a part of me almost hoped that he would challenge that because the fact that someone who was supposed to be on  _ our side _ could possibly be roped into this mess was absolutely terrifying.

“Yeah, I do,” I breathed out, wishing that the quieter I said it the less real it would make things. “We also need somewhere to go, we can’t go back to that house.”

“I’ve already got a plan figured out, I’ve been making calls the second I found out about what happened. I’m going to text Chloe an address, drive there and I have a private jet waiting with all of your things to take you both to Aspen, Colorado to one of my houses,” he explained. “It’s secluded from everybody, and it has a top of the line security system so if anybody so much as steps foot on the property you’ll be notified. When you get there, both of you need new phones with new numbers. Destroy your current devices and call me right when you get there. I’m having Amy drive your vehicle to you since it’s out of the shop. It may take a couple days for her to get there but until she does you guys will have plenty of supplies to last until she does.”

After going through the details we ended the call. I was hoping this plan would turn out better than our last but there was no way to be sure. But this bought us time, even if it was just a little bit. And that was all we could hope for at this point.

-xxxxxxxxxxx-

The plan was going smoothly, and by smoothly I mean we at least got to our destination and were able to settle in. Who knows how long that would last though, last time we only had three days of peace before we got disrupted. I honestly expected someone to already be here ready for us to arrive, it felt like whoever it is we’re dealing with are always a step ahead of us.

The “house” Jason has us staying in is actually a mansion that has a little mini mansion next to it as a place for guests to stay. I thought Chloe’s house was huge, and then I thought the Miami beach house belonging to her grand parents was enormous, but this place blows both of them combined out of the water.

It was 11 o’clock once we got settled into our rooms and put all the groceries away that they had on the plane for us take with us, and although a lot happened today and I  _ should  _ be exhausted, my mind simply wouldn’t allow me to go to sleep. It probably had something to do with the nerves of being in a new, unfamiliar area. 

So instead of sleep I settled down in my bed and worked on a mix of Titanium and 500 Miles that I hadn’t gotten a chance to touch since beginning this job. When I was staying at my dad’s house after the incident in Afghanistan, the only thing that kept me from not completely losing my mind was music. I missed the feeling I get when I get lost in the tracks I’m listening to and working on.

With my headphones on I couldn’t hear anything, but I knew Chloe had to be at the doorway because I could see the light from the hallway peeking into the room out of the corner of my eyes. I slid my headphones off my ears and around my neck, and turned my head to get a better look at Chloe. She was standing in the doorway with a pair of grey joggers on and a large black t-shirt, clearly her attire for bed. I checked the time on my laptop and frowned, it was past twelve now and usually Chloe was already asleep by now.

“Hey,” she greeted softly, closing the door behind her and taking a few tentative steps into my bedroom. “Sorry for interrupting, I just wanted to see what you were up to. I’m having a bit of trouble falling asleep.”

“I can’t sleep either,” I confessed, scooting over and patting the spot on the bed next to me for the redhead to sit. When she sat down, I couldn’t help but notice how close we were. Her leg right leg brushed against mine and I had to bite my lip to not audibly gasp at the contact. The small touch shouldn’t have my head spinning, but with everything going on and not knowing what was happening between Chloe and I had my emotions running rampant. I cleared my throat, hoping to ease the tension I was feeling, and asked, “did you call your dad to let him know we arrived?”

“Yeah, I talked to him and my mom for a while,” she smiled, but it didn’t quite shine like it usually does. I knew this was incredibly hard on her, being away from her family and friends, and there was nothing I wanted more than to be able to take all this pain away from her. “Dad said he was going to send you all the files you needed tomorrow morning, he just got held up in a lot of meetings today.”

“That’s okay,” I said. I went to save my work and close my laptop, but before I could Chloe grabbed my hand to stop me.

“What are you working on?” She asked and scooted even closer so she could see what was on my screen.

“I uh, was just working on a mix,” I mumbled. I never share my work with anyone because I just do it as a hobby and don’t expect this passion of mine to lead to anything, so I like to keep it private.

But when Chloe squealed excitedly and begged to listen to what I was working on, my body started working before my brain could process that I was handing over my headphones to the older woman. I sat impatiently picking at a thread in my pajama pants as she listened, not looking at what her reaction was because I was nervous that she wouldn’t like it.

“Holy  _ shit _ !” She shouted once taking the headphones off. “Beca, that was amazing! How have you not shown this to me before?”

“I’ve never actually shown anyone,” I confessed quietly, feeling my cheeks burn from the compliment. “You know David Guetta?”

“Have I been living under a rock?” She asked, sarcasm lacing her tone. “That song is my jam… my  _ lady _ jam.”

I could feel my cheeks burn even more as very inappropriate images of Chloe flooded my mind. And I knew by the teasing smirk that adorned her face that she definitely said that to get this exact reaction out of me.

“You continue to amaze me every day,” Chloe confessed, and her tone shifted from teasing to serious. Her blue eyes were burning with sincerity and the complement caused my brain to short-circuit and I couldn’t form coherent sentences.

“Chloe, I uh, I-” I stammered over my words. I huffed out a sigh of frustration and ran my fingers through my brown locks, hoping that would help me formulate my thoughts. “I was wondering what exactly is going on between you and I?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged and I could tell she had more to say but was trying to figure out how to say what she was thinking. “All I know is that I enjoy talking with you when there isn’t this ominous threat lurking behind us. I feel safe with you in a way that is more than just the fact that you can protect me from danger. I feel safe being  _ me _ and knowing that you won’t judge me or push me to be someone I’m not.”

Right then I wanted to reach for her and kiss her, to not say anything at all and show her how I feel. But we needed to have this discussion, it was important to me to hear her say what she’s feeling. So instead of kissing her, I reached out and holding her hand in mine, giving it a reassuring squeeze that I was listening to everything she was saying.

“Now is probably the worst time for us to jump into anything,” she murmured, looking down at our interlocked fingers. The sentence made my heart plummet into my stomach. That wasn’t where I was expecting that tangent to go, but the feeling subsided when she continued speaking. “But I don’t really care if it isn’t a good time, it may never be a good time. And I don’t want these feelings to pass us by and for us to miss out on something that could be amazing. So, I say we just take things one day at a time and see where it leads us.”

“Yeah,” I hummed in agreement. “That sounds nice.”

It sounded better than nice, it sounded amazing. We’ve had so much thrown at us in the past few weeks, and now we could have the opportunity to have some time to just be ourselves and see where it brings us. I was overcome with a feeling I hadn’t felt in a while.

Hopeful.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, this chapter is kind of just a little fluff because I feel like Beca and Chloe need to have some sort of peace for a little while at least. Next few chapters are really going to delve into Beca's head and her past. This is shorter than I wanted this chapter to be but I wanted to get something out for you guys because I don't know when I'll be able to post the next chapter. I'm dealing with a lot of shit with my relationship at the moment and I don't know when I'll get the chance to write chapter 12 because of it. Sorry if you guys were expecting more, but I promise I'll do my best to update as soon as possible it's just been really hard for me the past few weeks. I also want to hear you guys' thoughts on what I should do with my next story. I have 4 ideas in mind: zombie apocalypse, supernatural, game of thrones based, or just like a cute/angsty fic where chloe and beca have a past but years later chloe is set to marry some guy because she comes from a rich family. If you guys could let me know how you like this chapter and what you'd like to see next from me that would be awesome because i'm really having a hard time figuring out what to write for my next story because all four of these ideas could be really awesome i just want to hear from you guys what you'd prefer. Thanks for keeping up with this fic and all the amazing feedback you've given me. It means the world. Enjoy!

I woke up with sweat covering my body to a shrill scream, and in my daze it took me a moment to realize that scream came from me. My vision was blurry and I blinked several times to finally see crystal blue eyes and red hair looking at me worried. I couldn’t breathe, let alone speak. I could see Chloe’s mouth moving but I couldn’t hear anything but the sounds of explosions, gunfire and screaming. I tried sucking in a breath of air but my chest felt so tight, like my rib cage was squeezing all the air out of my lungs.

Then I felt hands cup my face and suddenly lips were on mine, and everything I had been feeling vanished. The gunfire and screaming morphed into quiet breaths, my mind no longer replaying stills of people dying,  my chest loosened and I was able to take a deep breath when our lips parted. She stayed close, her nose brushing mine, her lips just mere centimeters away from mine. I could feel her warm breath and her thumbs wiping away the tears that had fallen from my cheeks.

“Just breathe, Beca,” she whispered, brushing my hair out of my face. Her eyes were still flooded with worry and I hated that she saw me like this.

“I- I’m sorry,” I whimpered, and  _ god _ I sounded so weak. Nobody has ever seen me in a state like this, not even Sarah had. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“You didn’t. I was worried. How long have these nightmares been happening?” She asked.

“A little while, it’s not a big deal,” I shrugged, scooting away from her and pulling my knees up to my chest to give myself a bit of distance. I didn’t want to lie to her but I didn’t want her to be concerned about me. We had bigger things to worry about than my nightmares.

“Your wellbeing is a big deal, Beca. You can’t just ignore the problem,” she scolded. “Don’t push me away because of this. I’m here for you, too. You don’t have to take all of this on your own.”

I knew she was being genuine and I appreciated the thought, but I still wasn’t totally ready to talk about it.

“I know you’re here for me. It’s just— it’s really hard to formulate my thoughts on what’s going on in my head,” I explained. “I promise I’ll talk to you about it, I just need some time to think first.”

Chloe nodded, and didn’t press any further on the subject which I was grateful for. I would talk to her about it at some point just not now. I wasn’t ready to throw all the shit that I’ve been through at her, especially since last night went so well, I didn’t want to scare her away before things even started between us.

Last night after our talk, we laid in bed and just talked about things. I showed her a few more mixes and her reaction to them was similar to the first reaction she had when hearing the Titanium and 500 Miles mix. I explained to her that when I was younger I had wanted to move to Los Angeles and produce music, but after my mom died my plans changed. We had fallen asleep together, with her head resting on my shoulder, and it was the first night in a long time that I had fallen asleep without tossing and turning but the nightmares still came. But it was progress from my usual efforts.

I got up to shower because the sweat was still sticking to my body and made me feel a bit uncomfortable, so I excused myself from my conversation with Chloe and went into the bathroom. I started the shower, testing the water before stepping in. I was singing to a mix that I had shown Chloe last night.

_ You got me so wild _

_ How can I ever deny _

_ You got me so high _

_ So high I cannot feel the fire _

 

_ And you keep telling me _

_ Telling me that you’ll be sweet _

_ And you’ll never want to leave my side _

_ As long as I don’t break these _

_ Promises, and they still feel all so wasted on myself _

 

I was about to sing the next part when the shower curtain was ripped open and I spun around to see Chloe with a massive grin on her face. I shrieked, feeling like I was in a scary movie and was about to get murdered but instead of a murderer it was a bubbly redhead who looked a little manic at the moment.

“You can sing!” She shouted, clapping happily.

“DUDE!” I screamed, trying to cover myself with the bottle of body wash I was about to use to wash my body. I was hyper aware of the fact that I was very much naked in front of the girl that I had feelings for and I  _ really  _ did not expect this to be the way Chloe was going to see me naked for the first time.

“How high does your belt go?”

“My what?” I shrieked. Chloe reached around me to turn the shower water off. “Oh my god.”

“You didn’t tell me you could  _ sing _ ! How could you keep that from me?”   
“Chloe, I am naked. Is now the appropriate time to be having this conversation?” I could feel my skin burning up from embarrassment. To make matters worse, I dropped the body wash that was covering my breasts.

“I knew you could make mixes but singing is a  _ whole  _ different ball game, Becs!”

“Seriously, I am nude. Can we maybe talk about this when I’m not...” I trailed off, hoping the redhead would catch my drift.

“Fine,” she sighed and I was thankful that she backed down.

When she finally left the bathroom, I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding in. I chuckled to myself because honestly that was such a  _ Chloe  _ thing to do, I couldn’t even be mad at her for invading my privacy.

I finished showering quickly, wrapping myself in a towel before exiting the bathroom. She was still in my room, perched on the edge of my bed just waiting for me to be finished with my shower.

“So,” she hummed. “You can sing.”

“I can,” I smiled, finding it amusing how much that little fact seemed to be such a big deal to the older woman.

“I totally could have gotten you to join the Bellas if we had gone to the same school,” she grinned, and she looked so cute it was causing butterflies to go wild in my stomach.

“I don’t know about that,” I chuckled. “Still seems pretty lame to me.”

“Aca-scuse me?”

“Do you normally barge into people’s showers like that?” I asked, ignoring whatever weird word she just said.

She stood up and stalked over to me, and the movement made me step back until I was pressed up against the bathroom door. She was close, very close, and my breathing hitched in my throat.

“You have a beautiful voice,” she whispered, her eyes darting between my eyes and my lips.

And then her lips were on mine and I couldn’t stop the moan that escaped. The passion that was behind the kiss shocked me, but I totally was not complaining. Her tongue brushed my bottom lip, requesting entrance into my mouth that I happily gave her. This was not how I expected my morning to go, but being pushed up against a door kissing Chloe Beale was a better way to spend it than I could have asked for. The kiss was slow, but it made me feel like my body was on fire. It ended all too quickly.

“Like I said last night,” she sighed against my lips, her forehead resting against mine. “You continue to amaze me every day.”

Had I known that singing would have invoked this reaction out of the redhead, I would have sang for her a long time ago.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait for this next chapter, I have been so busy but I've been working constantly on this for the past few days to try to get you guys a chapter. I hope you guys enjoy this, let me know what your thoughts are. I love hearing your feedback. I'm also working on a super long one-shot for you guys as well so hopefully I'll be publishing that soon as well. Enjoy!

We’ve been in Colorado for a week now, Amy arrived three nights ago with a surprise neither Chloe or I were expecting. At first I thought it was a horrible idea, letting Aubrey and Stacie come along, but even though it was two extra people to look after it made Chloe happy. She had so much to deal with the past few weeks and even if it caused Amy and I to do a little more work, it was good for her to have people she cared about with her.

Amy, Aubrey and Stacie decided to stay in the guest house, and Chloe and I had the main house to ourselves. Jason was right about the security system, sometimes it would even go off if a fox or deer would step on the property, which was a little annoying but it was better to be too safe than not safe enough. For the first time, it felt like we could actually get some semblance of relaxation.

Chloe and I hadn’t really gone out much since arriving, usually if we needed anything Amy would go out and sometimes take Aubrey and Stacie. We didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves and since the tabloids had some weird fetish over mine and Chloe’s relationship, we didn’t want to be recognized by someone and have them write about where we were. It was better if the people after us still thought we were in Miami. I’m sure they had some idea that we weren’t there anymore, but now they didn’t have anything to work with.

It was about noon and Chloe and I were in the entertainment room watching a movie. Well, Chloe was watching a movie and I wasn’t really paying too much attention, more focused on the redhead who had her head resting against my shoulder than the film. She must have noticed my gaze because she looked at me with a pout on her face.

“You’re not even watching,” she whined, her bottom lip jutting out to form an adorable frown. “This is the best part of the movie!”

“Movies aren’t really my thing,” I confessed with a sheepish grin.

“We could have done something else. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I’m content just being here with you.”

I leaned my head down and kissed her softly. It was meant to be a short kiss, but the sigh that escaped her lips sent a jolt through my body. I placed my hand on the side of her face to pull her closer to me, deepening the kiss. I felt her tongue brush against mine and I couldn’t stop the moan that tore from the back of my throat.

We had gotten pretty comfortable with each other over the week since we arrived, taking it day by day like we agreed. We would kiss and hold hands, most nights we’d even sleep in the same bed just because we’d talk until exhaustion hit us. It never got much further than a little bit of making out, but this felt like it could be leading to something more.

Chloe broke the kiss, and I was about to protest but before any words could come out of my mouth she positioned herself so she was straddling my waist. Desire coursed through my body as we shared heavy, passionate kisses. Her hands were clutching the lapels of my flannel, and I could feel her hips starting to grind down into me.

I trailed my kisses across her perfectly structured jawline and down to her neck, where I found a seemingly sensitive spot about an inch underneath her ear and sucked and nipped at her neck. I wasn’t really thinking about what I was doing and where this was heading, which is probably a good thing because if I was I probably would have been an awkward, fumbling mess. For the first time in a while my mind wasn’t racing in a million different directions– there was something about Chloe that just made me feel at ease.

I placed my hand on the back of her neck before bringing myself back up to capture her lips in another heated kiss. I could feel her start to fumble around with the buttons of my flannel, and I could feel my heart rate skyrocket because this was actually happening right now. It wasn’t a dream or hallucination, Chloe Beale was _actually_ trying to undress me, and I could not have been more okay with it.

Usually it takes me a while to get to this point, mostly because I don’t want people close enough to me to be able to be intimate with them. But Chloe was like a drug, and a little taste wasn’t enough. I wanted her in every way possible, wanted to know everything about her. I wanted to memorize every inch of her skin and every thought that crosses her mind. Everything.

“Woah bitches! Please keep your clothes on!” Amy shouted from the doorway of the entertainment room.

We jumped apart from each other and saw that Aubrey and Stacie were standing there as well, Aubrey looking a little embarrassed and Stacie looking at us with an approving smile. I could feel my cheeks start to blush, and one quick glance at Chloe and I could see her face was just as red.

I got up from the couch, not looking anyone in the eye, and quietly mumbled something about having work to do. I didn’t look back at anyone before practically sprinting to my bedroom. I closed the door behind me and rested against the door to breathe, getting my thoughts in order and getting my heart rate back to its normal pace. I wasn’t ashamed to be caught kissing Chloe, but I could not handle the awkwardness in the room, and my natural instinct was to get the hell out of there.

I felt a knock at the door and opened the door to see Chloe, smiling shyly. It was honestly too god damn adorable. I grabbed her hand and pulled her inside the bedroom.

“Sorry that they walked in on us,” Chloe said, closing the door behind her. “I don’t want you to feel embarrassed.”

“No, I don’t. I was honestly just afraid Aubrey was going to projectile vomit on us,” I teased. “And I do need to check out the information your dad sent me about who had access to my car before it was given to us.”

“Would you like some company?” She asked as she sidled up next to me and wrapped her arms around my waist.

“Absolutely.”

* * *

 

We had been sitting in my room for a couple hours, she had been reading _This Side of Paradise_ by F. Scott Fitzgerald and rubbing my back as I went over the paperwork Jason had sent me, trying to find any type of lead to who put that tracker on my car. He even went one step ahead, finding the videos that the surveillance cameras picked up in the parking garage at the White House where my car was kept.

My stomach rumbled from hunger. I hadn’t eaten since 7 o’clock in the morning and I was just noticing now that it was almost 3 o’clock, having been so focused on work time had gotten away from me.

“Someone sounds hungry,” Chloe chuckled, placing her book on the bedside table. She leaned over and kissed my cheek as I continued to watch the surveillance cameras. “You want me to go make us some food?”

“Food sounds amazing right now,” I smiled, turning my head to the side to place a kiss on her forehead.

“Keep up the good work. I’ll be right back,” she said. She got up from the bed and went towards the kitchen.

I rubbed my temples and let out a deep sigh, getting frustrated by finding no leads so far to help us figure this thing out. I had been watching the tapes for almost three hours, and still nothing.

But when I focused back to my computer, I noticed a car pull up in the parking garage next to mine. The man got out and I recognized him. It was Justin, the man I fired at the first meeting I had with the entire secret service team. Something wasn’t right about this, he wasn’t authorized anymore to be there. I remember him vividly, his voice echoing in my brain over and over.

_“You’ll pay for this, bitch.”_

When I watched him coincidentally drop something next to my car, that’s when I knew. It was him. He put the tracker there and he has been the one that has been getting these people to follow us. I closed my laptop and practically sprinted to the kitchen where Aubrey, Stacie, Amy, and Chloe were.

“I know who it is,” I uttered, feeling the tension in the room grow thick. My heart was pounding, and I could tell the others in the room were just as scared as I was.

“Who is it?” Chloe asked, breaking the silence after a few moments.

“Justin, the guy I fired my first day.”

“What does this mean? What do we do?” Aubrey was the next to ask questions.

I pondered those questions for a while, honestly not really sure how to process this newfound information. I had a feeling someone we knew was the one causing this, but having it confirmed made my stomach churn uncomfortably. I knew what I had to do, but I knew that the people in this room with me were not going to be happy with it, especially Chloe.

“What this means is I have to return to Washington D.C. immediately. Alone.”

“Why alone?” Chloe questioned, and I could hear the panic in her voice and it made my heart pang with hurt and regret, knowing she wasn’t going to like what I have to say.

I locked eyes with her and tried to convey everything I felt for her in that moment, because God only knows when I’d get to see her again. I wanted to say so much, but then it would feel like I was saying goodbye, and I couldn’t bear the thought of that.

“Because this isn’t about you guys anymore, this is about me now. They want me,” I explained. I let the weight of my words hang in the air for a moment before continuing. “I have to go alone because I’m going to give them what they want. I’m going to give myself to them.”

This was the only way it could go. My job is to protect Chloe at all costs, and I should have known from the start that the cost would be my life. But this was it, this was the only way I could get in and take them out for good. This is the way it had to be. And if someone had told me from the start that I would probably have to die in order to save Chloe Beale, I would do it all over again.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey guys!! Sorry for the wait. This chapter was really starting to get lengthy so I decided to split it into two chapters, so chapter 14 should be up soon (but I feel like I always say that and then it takes centuries for me to update) but I'm hoping for the best lol. Also this story is probably going to be coming to an end soon. I'd say there will probably be 3 or 4 more chapters to this, most likely 3 though. Chapter 15 is going to be from Chloe's point of view, and depending how long that gets I may split it into 2 chapters. After Chloe's point of view will be the final chapter. So I hope to be finished with this story soon so I can begin to work on some other stories because I have a ton of ideas. Anyway, enough of my usual rambling. I hope you enjoy!!

_ Present _

 

When I was young, I would have never thought that my life could be over before the age of thirty. It was a thought that crossed my mind as I grew a little older and my mom got cancer, thinking maybe I’d get it too someday. But this– this was not the way I expected it to go down.

I thought at twenty-five I’d be in Los Angeles, spinning at the hottest clubs, working my way up in the industry. But there was something that made that change, switched the gears in my brain to make the decision to join the military instead of trying to achieve my pipe dream. My mom’s death definitely changed me, but that wasn’t what pushed me to join. Maybe it was the thought of a stable future instead of possibly not making it in L.A and being screwed, or maybe it was the contempt towards my dad that I still held in me that didn’t want to be smothered by his demands for what I do with my life. Either way, whatever was the deciding factor, I didn’t imagine that one decision to cause my life to spiral this out of control.

This could be the end for me, and that wasn’t the thought that scared me the most. The only thought that was running through my head was how afraid I was of never seeing Chloe again. Missing out on the opportunity to have a  _ normal _ life with her, away from all the horrors we’ve seen together. Maybe I was the one that caused all of this and Chloe would have a better life without me. Maybe I made one too many mistakes, and this was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. Maybe I should have just listened to the girls when they told me not to go alone. Maybe I’d get out of this alive.

Maybe.

 

_ 4 days earlier _

 

“Why are you doing this?” Chloe questioned, her voice cracking over the last few words. Her eyes were brimming with tears, and the sight broke my heart. The others had left for us to discuss this privately, but they were pretty much with Chloe on this and didn’t think I should go. I couldn’t stand to be the one causing her pain, but this was the only way that I could protect her. The only reason why she was in danger now was because of me, but if I leave and she stays nobody would find her.

“I’m doing this because I have to, Chlo,” I sighed in defeat. I didn’t want to leave her, that was the last thing I wanted. But being holed up away from the rest of the world wasn’t what I wanted for us. There was still danger lurking around the corner ready to get us at any moment, and this was the only way to end that. “This is the only way for you to be safe. This is the only way for you to have a future.”

“What future would it be if you’re dead?!” Her voice was laced with a mix of anger and despair. Tears were freely falling down her face now, and I could feel tears of my own start to well up in my eyes. She laughed bitterly, pinching the bridge of her nose to try to stop her tears. “Don’t you get it? I can’t live without you. I won’t. If you die, so will I.”

“Chloe, there’s no other way for this to end.”

“So that’s it? You’re just going to leave me with nothing to hope for?”

I walked closer so there was no space between us. I reached up and placed my hand against the side of her face, stroking my thumb against her soft skin, taking in everything about her. The few freckles that dotted her cheeks, the scar on her forehead, the crystal blue eyes that always took my breath away.

“I will do whatever I have to do to get back to you,” I promised, hoping she would hear the truth in my words and put her mind at ease. “I would do anything for you, Chloe.”

“I don’t want you to die for me. I want you to  _ live  _ for me, I want you to be here with me always.”

“I’ll always be with you because I love you.” The words came out of my mouth without thought and I realized in that moment that I have never spoke truer words. Maybe it was the wrong time to say it, before leaving to possibly never return, but if I didn’t say it now I may never be able to say it again. “My heart is yours, it will always be yours, no matter what happens.”

“Stay with me for one more night,” she choked out through her tears. “If I can’t change your mind on this, then please, just be with me for one more night.”

It was never meant to be this hard, leaving Chloe Beale. Our relationship was never meant to go further than just a professional one, but now I’m here thinking of how fucking hard it is going to be tomorrow morning when I leave the woman I love. Even though I could possibly be on my way to a grave tomorrow, I had never felt more alive than right now in this moment. I was hit with the realization that I wanted to have this for the rest of my life, which is why I have to make it back to her, but if I die before that at least I get to end my days with Chloe.

I closed the miniscule distance between us, capturing her lips in a kiss that took the air right out of my lungs and left me breathless. I needed her to feel what I felt, to understand how much I cared for her. It was slow, loving– like we had all the time in the world. My tongue traced the bottom of her lip, being granted the access I so desperately craved. Her soft tongue caressed mine, and a moan ripped through the back of my throat.

“I need you,” she whispered against my lips as she pulled away slightly. Her chest heaved as her breaths came out in short gasps. “Beca, I need you.” She grabbed my face and tilted my head up so I was looking into her eyes. Her pupils were dilated to the point where the blue was practically gone.

I didn’t think about anything other than her in that moment. I grabbed her hand and brought her to my bedroom, which never wound up to be just  _ my _ bedroom, it was always ours. 

We landed on the bed in a clumsy pile of limbs, our clothes had been discarded carelessly once we had finally made it to the bedroom, and we laid in nothing but our bras and panties. I made it my mission to kiss every inch of her body, starting my trail at her neck. My hot breath ghosted over her neck, causing her to arch her back into me. My thigh slipped in between her legs and I could feel the heat emanating from underneath her red lace lingerie.

I took my time learning her body– learning which spots made her gasp and moan. I reached behind her and unclipped her bra in one swift motion. Once her breasts were released from the undergarment, my lips travelled down further, taking one of her nipples into my mouth as my hand palmed the other. If this was going to be the only time to be with Chloe, I wasn’t going to rush it.

“Fuck, Beca,” she moaned, her hand tangling in my hair. I could tell with the way her hips kept raising to find friction that she wasn’t going to be able to last much longer without being touched where she needed me.

I placed open-mouthed kisses across her toned stomach, feeling her tremble beneath my soft touches. When I reached the hem of her panties, I licked across her stomach before sliding them down her silky, smooth legs.

I kissed down her thigh, nipping at her skin as I got closer to where she wanted me. Before proceeding, I took a moment to capture the sight before me in my mind. Chloe’s naked form sprawled out against the sheets, her hair draped messily against the pillows, her eyes filled with lust and love staring back at me.

I dipped my head down and finally gave her what she wanted, and the response that it invoked caused my own wetness to increase. I licked softly at her clit, circling it with my tongue and sucking at it. Her hips bucked into the air and I snaked my arm around her waist, holding her in place. One of her hands was still tangled in my hair as the other gripped at the sheets beneath us.

“Fuck, baby,” she cried out as I applied a bit more pressure to her clit with my tongue. Her moans were getting louder and less coherent as I pushed her closer to the edge of climax. “Come here, I want you close to me.”

I pushed myself back up towards the head of the bed where she was, replacing my tongue with two fingers inside of her. Her hands flew up to my shoulder blades and her nails dug into my skin from the change in tempo. I rolled my hips into her, thrusting deeper inside her, hitting that sweet spot that was causing her to cry out in pleasure.

Focused on her, I hadn’t noticed her hand dip into the hem of my underwear until I felt her slide two fingers into me. I nuzzled my face into her neck and bit down on the skin beneath my lips to muffle the sound of my own cries. Her palm was pressing against my clit and I could feel my own orgasm coming.

I inserted another finger into her dripping center and used my thumb to rub circles against her clit, effectively pushing her over the edge, and I followed suit immediately after her. She pulled me in for a heated kiss as we both rode out the waves of our orgasms.

Once both our tremors subsided, I cuddled up into her side, cherishing the last few hours I had with her until I had to leave. I ran my fingertips up and down her abdomen and watched goosebumps form from the gentle touch.

“When do you go?” She asked after a few moments of silence.

“I was going to leave at sunrise.” I tilted my head up to get a better look at her, and I saw tears welling in her eyes. It killed me to have to do this to her. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

It was a lie, we both knew it, but pretending like we’d see each other again was more comforting than the reality of the situation. I didn’t want to think about the fact that these could be the last few hours I’d spend with her.

“I love you, too, by the way,” she said softly. “I need you to know that, because I wouldn’t forgive myself if I don’t get the chance to say it again.”

Those words spread a warmth through me that ignited a determination in my mind to do whatever I had to to come back to Chloe. This was more than just putting an end to this bullshit we’ve both had to suffer through for the past few months, this was so we could have a beginning. The beginning of a new life, just the two of us.

 

_ 2 days earlier _

 

I had made it from Aspen to Washington in a little more than a day, only stopping to eat, use the restroom, and fill up the gas tank. I was used to having to stay up for extended periods of time, so the drive wasn’t too bad. I had stopped at a motel to rest for a few hours before continuing onwards with my first task.

My first destination was to the parking garage at the White House where my car had been parked before it was given to me. I needed to speak to the agent who had allowed Justin into the garage, and needed to figure out if he was in on this fucked up scheme as well.

I walked up to the man sitting in the little booth that was at the entrance of the garage. His name was Tim, and after doing some research I knew he was quite close with Justin. When he noticed me approaching he stood up from his seat, standing straight with his arms behind his back. He was a pretty large man, probably close to a foot taller than me. His sandy, blonde hair was buzz cut, and his blue eyes had a soft glint to them– making him appear to be a trustworthy guy.

“Good morning, Ms. Mitchell,” he greeted me as I got closer to him. So far he was reacting like a perfect Secret Service agent should, but with the information I knew, I was ready to catch him in the act. “I didn’t expect to see you so soon after what happened in Miami.”

“I didn’t expect to be here,” I replied honestly. I nodded at him, giving him permission to relax his current stance. “I’m not really supposed to be here.”

“What do you mean?” He asked, his brow furrowing from confusion.

“I’m supposed to be in hiding, but I just feel like I am  _ so _ close to figuring this thing out and I was hoping you could give me a little bit of insight,” I smiled at him. It was a soft smile, a smile that I was hoping would make him feel at ease. It was a warm smile, but on the inside my blood was running cold. I felt like a hunter toying with my prey right before I made my final move.

“Of course,” he grinned back. “What’s going on?”

“I have a list here of people who are allowed access in the garage,” I explained, pulling a few pieces of paper out of my jacket pocket to show him. “And on this other page, I have a list of people who entered the garage about three weeks ago.”

I watched as he inspected both lists, and I could tell when he realized what exactly I was insinuating. He looked at me, the panic in his eyes clear as day, and before I could get a word in he was making a run for it. I chased after him– he was a big guy but he moved pretty slow, but I was fast even though my legs were probably the size of his calves.

He was running towards a black Toyota Corolla, I could see him fumbling with the keys to get it unlocked for when he reached the vehicle. I pulled the pistol I had tucked in my pants out, and fired a bullet. It missed him, which was the point, but it was enough for him to drop the keys and he fell to the ground in the process.

I caught up to him and pushed his body with my foot so he was laying on his back looking up at me. I pressed my combat boot into his chest and aimed the gun at his head.

“You better start talking,” I growled, digging my boot harder into his chest.

“I-I didn’t know h-he was part of everything,” he stumbled over his words. “I knew he didn’t like you but I thought he was just going to pull a stupid prank, like key your car or something.”

“How did he know which car was mine?”

“He knew I was surveilling the garage, and when he came to drop off his car I told him to park it next to yours.”

“Where is he now? Where does he live?” I interrogated. I needed to find him and get to the bottom of this.

“He has a house on Red Bridge street, it’s a small brick house across from a yellow two story. Please, that’s all I know.”

I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him to his feet. I pulled my phone out and dialed Jesse’s number.

“Beca? What’s going on?” He questioned as soon as he answered the phone.

“Come to the parking garage, Tim has some things he would like to explain to you,” I explained quickly. “I’ve got somewhere I’ve gotta be, but I think you’ll be up to speed after your chat with him.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in Aspen? How are you in D.C?”

“I drove,” I sighed, feeling as though that explanation was pretty obvious. I knew he was going to lecture me about being here, but nothing anybody could do could stop me. The girls already tried stopping me before I left, Jesse wasn’t going to persuade me any other way. Not even the president himself could stop me at this point.

“Beca, you shouldn’t-”   
“I gotta go, Jesse,” I interrupted, not bothering with wasting my time listening to him. It’s not that I didn’t respect his opinion, but his words just weren’t necessary. “I’ll be in touch.”

With that said, I hung up the phone and shoved Tim back inside the booth– knowing damn well that he wouldn’t run. I then made my way out of the garage and began conjuring up my plan to find my next target.

  
  



	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry it's been a while and sorry for the shorter chapter. I was going to make this chapter a lot longer, but I felt like splitting it up was better for the flow of the story. Next chapter will still be in Chloe's POV like planned, and the following chapter will pick up where Beca's POV left off. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, sorry if there are any typos or anything I wrote it pretty quickly before going to class. I just really wanted to give you guys something... and I swear the cliffhanger at the end will all make sense soon ;) Let me know how you guys like it, your love and support has meant so much to me during the process of writing this story. Enjoy!

_ 24 hours earlier _

 

I waited in my car a few houses away from where I now knew Justin Hastings resides. I first had to make a trip to a gun and ammunition store, and for the first time ever I was grateful for the lax gun laws that America had. I purchased a few handguns, all assorted in different sizes to hide in different places on myself in case I was in a predicament where I couldn’t utilize the heavier weapons I bought.

Loaded in the duffel bag that I had in my car was also two automatic assault rifles because I didn’t know how many people I’d be up against. I also had a sniper rifle with a couple attachable scopes on them, as well as some wire just in case. I made a mental note that if I made it out of this alive I’d talk to Jason about enforcing better gun laws, because nobody should be able to walk out of a store with as much weaponry as I had, but it was going to be necessary for what I needed to do.

I had been parked for over an hour waiting for him to arrive. I didn’t have much of a plan when it came to my confrontation with him. I didn’t know if he would submit and reveal the location of the others involved in this fucked up scheme against Chloe and I, or if he would put up a fight.

As I was contemplating my plan, a beat-up Chevrolet pickup truck pulled into the driveway, and I saw Justin emerge from the vehicle. His brown hair a little longer than it had been when I first met him, and his beard had gotten bushier as well. He walked into the house, and I waited a few moments before following him.

I stood in front of the door of his house, gathering the courage to do what needed to be done. My hands were sweaty from nerves, and I wiped them against my pants in hopes that would instill some kind of determination in me to knock on the door. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before lifting my hand to rap my knuckles against the door.

It didn’t take long for him to open the door, and when he locked eyes with me I could see the recognition hit him. His brow furrowed and his stance became more defensive.

“What do you want?” He growled, beads of sweat already forming on his forehead.

“I just came to have a chat,” I smirked, the confidence in me growing as the memories of our last encounter flooded my mind. He was going to be a challenge just like he was last time, but the situation hadn’t been as severe. Now, he was a threat to the people I have come to love, as well as myself, and I wasn’t about to let him get away with what he has done.

“I’m not interested in anything you have to say,” he muttered as he began to shut the door.

I lodged my boot in the door frame before he could close it. I pushed my weight against the door to give me the advantage of slipping inside the house. His eyes flashed in anger at my intrusion, and I knew that if I provoked him anymore he would snap.

“You’re trespassing. I’ll call the cops on you,” he threatened.

“Go ahead,” I goaded, knowing he was bluffing. “I’m sure they would just  _ love _ to hear about your involvement in the terrorist attacks against the president and his family.”

His mouth opened as if he was about to speak, but then he closed it, opting to stay silent. I couldn’t help the sly grin that spread on my face. I had him exactly where I needed him. It was just a matter of if he would be willing to divulge the information I needed.

“That’s what I thought,” I chuckled humorlessly. “Now, you can either make this easy on both of us and tell me what I need to know, or you can make this more difficult.”

“What do you want?” He snarled.

“I want to know who you are working for and where they are located.”

“That’s not going to happen. You have no proof of my involvement.”

“You sure about that?” I challenged. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and opened up the video of him planting the tracking device on my car. I turned the phone to him and watched as the realization hit him that he had no other options. “I mean, that is you, correct? Sure looks like it.”

Before I could process anything, he had me pinned to the door of his house, his forearm pushing against my throat to stop the oxygen flow to my lungs. He was strong, that was for sure, but I’ve faced more challenging opponents before.

“I’ll kill you,” he grumbled, his face mere inches from mine. “I’ll kill you and nobody will  _ ever _ even know you were here.”   
I brought my knee up and hit him as hard as I could in the groin, causing him to stumble back away from me. I didn’t want to have to resort to violence, however I had a feeling it would come down to this. I brought my foot up again and kicked him square in the chest to knock him onto his back. As he was on the ground I planted my foot against his chest and applied as much pressure as I could without causing injury to keep him there. I pulled one of the handguns out of its holster on my hip and aimed it at his head.

“I didn’t come here to fight you,” I huffed, a little out of breath from the lack of oxygen. “But I will end you if it comes down to it.”

“She’ll kill me if she finds out I told you,” he cried out, tears starting to flow, and for a minute I felt kind of bad for him. But I wasn’t going to let my sympathy be a weakness. Who was this  _ she _ he was referring to? I needed to know, and I wasn’t going to leave until I had the information I needed.

“If you help me figure this shit out, I can protect you,” I explained, hoping he’d be more inclined to tell me if I promised his safety.

“Oh yeah, ‘cause you’ve been so good at protecting Chloe.”

Anger coursed through me at the mention of Chloe. He had some fucking audacity to bring her into this. I pushed down harder against his chest, not caring if it hurt. He wheezed out a cough from the pressure against his ribcage.

“Don’t you  _ dare _ bring her into this,” I seethed, pushing down harder as my anger was getting the best of me.

“Struck a nerve, I see,” he chuckled bitterly.

“You have two options here, Hastings,” I muttered, easing the pressure I was putting on his chest. “Either you tell me where these people are located and we can put you into witness protection, or  _ I  _ will kill you right here, right now.”

The words tasted bitter in my mouth. Killing wasn’t something I liked doing, it haunted me every day. But time was running out, and so were my options. Sometimes we have to do things we don’t  _ want  _ to do in order to protect those around us. The longer this went on, the longer Chloe would be in danger. She was my top priority, and if that meant losing a piece of myself then so be it.

“There are abandoned buildings in Richmond, Virginia. They’ve taken residence in one of them. That’s where all their planning happens,” he explained. I was surprised he was willing to divulge these details to me. I expected him to put up more of a fight, but maybe he realized that this was the end of the line for him. I wasn’t here to play games. I took my foot off his chest, allowing him to sit up to speak now that he was willing.

“How many people do they have?”

“About fifty, give or take. They have four snipers on the roof, one at each corner of the building. Two people guard the front entrance, and two people guard the back entrance. They have about ten others on each floor. It’s a relatively small building, only four or five floors.”

“Who leads them?” I asked, engraving this new knowledge into my memory.

“I don’t know her real name, I just know what people call her,” he whispered. His eyes looked fearful as he thought about this woman who has been the cause of so much death and destruction.

“What do they call her?”

“The call her… Kommissar.”


End file.
